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Youth and Christianity 



Lectures 



BY 



O. KLYKKEN 



Translated from the Norwegian by 
LAURITZ LARSEN 




DECOR&H, IOWA 

LUTHERAN PUBLISHING HOUSE 

1916 



*«*° 



y^^ 



Copyright, 1916, by 

Lutheran Publishing House, 

Decorah, Iowa. 



ipr 



MAY -8 1916 



©CI.A428910 



FOREWORD* 

I have had occasion to look through the manu- 
script for Mr. Klykken's book, and I am glad to ac- 
company it with a few words^ 

Just as the writer is favorably known by his 
former books, so also a strong impression of his 
ability to set forth his thoughts in a pleasing manner 
will be found here. There is a combination of depth 
and fervor with a charming and clear style that is 
not often found. And the contents are altogether 
timely and practical, and characterized by deep, Chris- 
tian sincerity. 

I hope the book may find many readers, and I am 
convinced that any one who makes its acquaintance 
will derive rich blessings from it. It is written espe- 
cially for young people, and it is cordially recom- 
mended for distribution among them. But older 
people, as well, will derive great benefit from the 
reading of it. 

Throndhjem, November, 1907. 

S. E. J0RGSNS3N, Pastor. 



These lectures, as well as those published a few- 
years ago- — "Our Homes and Our Children" — were 
delivered at the school "Fredly," in Strinden, Nor- 
way, a school belonging to the Throndhjem circuit 
of the Home Mission Society. The reception ac- 
corded the first series has encouraged the publication 
of these. O. K. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

I. Spring and youth — and a ^little layman's philos- 
ophy. (In lieu of introduction) 7 

1. Behold the fowls of the air, consider the lilies 

of the field! : 7 

2. Are ye not much better than they? 16 

II. The young Christian life 23 

1. The first germ of life — baptism 23 

2. Are we true to our baptismal covenant ? 29 

a. Childhood 29 

b. The age of transition 31 

3. Not a pillow, but an incentive 37 

III. The first communion 40 

1. A large child 40 

2. Confessional sermon, Communion address 47 

3. Do not neglect the Lord's Supper ! 57 

4. Who should commune, then, and who should 
not . . 63 

5. Postscript to chapter III 65 

IV. Fallen and risen 68 

1 . My son was dead 68 

a. How did it happen ?....".. 68 

b. Is it not dangerous ? 78 

2. Behold, He liveth ! 81 

a. Awakening, conversion 81 

b. Faith in Jesus Christ 85 



V. Weak faith, increase of faith 87 

VI. Godliness is great gain 97 

1 . Deceivers 97 

2. Deceived 99 

3. First creep, then walk \ . . 100 

4. Responsibility 103 

5. Gain 106 

a. A Sunday evening 106 

b. Seven years later 115 

VII. Faith and reason 128 

1. Is Christianity contrary to reason? 128 

2. "Christianity and humanity's great men" 136 



Spring and Youth — and a Little Layman's 
Philosophy* 

(In lieu of introduction.) 



1* Behold the Fowls of the Air, Consider 
the Lilies of the Field! 

"Grand is Spring in Norway's fertile valleys, 

Grandly conquers here its power mild. 
Earth awakens from its sleep and rallies ; 

Field and meadow bloom with flowers wild. 
Loosed streams toward ocean gaily dancing, 

Waterfalls sing grandly in their might, 
Sprouting life in bounds advancing 

Spreads o'er nature verdant magic bright." 

— M. J. Monrad. 

Behold the beauty of spring! Vapor rises from 
the earth at sunrise. After the warm May shower, 
all verdure of field and meadow, in forest and glen, 
is greener than ever. It seems almost as though the 
beautiful color would drip from the sun-kissed blade 
and leaf. Here and there the blossoms of spring peep 
forth, white, yellow, red, blue, violet, in all shades. 
In a few days you will see the whole earth covered 
with the most wonderful spread of flowers. 



And do you hear the delightful music? From the 
humming insects to the master singer among the 
birds of the forest and the bird of passage, what- 
ever has the power of sound, all, even the lamb, the 
kid, and the calf, join their voices in the grand con- 
cert, while the waterfall sings bass. 

Everywhere fragrance and color, beauty and life* 
song and sound; and everything that creeps, skips, 
runs, flutters, or flies, seems filled with joy and hope. 

Dear youth, do but open your eye and ear to the 
beauty of spring! We older folk most heartily wish 
you your spring joy. Yes, we do not only wish that 
you may have joy, but we would gladly help you to 
lay real good hold on it, that it may grow and endure 
until hoary old age. And in this we believe we have 
the approval of Him who said: "Behold the fowls 
of the air . . . consider the lilies of the field!" 

But He who spoke these words also said: "Are 
ye not much better than they?" That we must never 
forget. We are human beings. 

You may certainly enjoy the spring with its teem- 
ing life and all its beauty; sing forth your joy; skip 
and run, if you wish; but not only with the joy of 
the lamb and the kitten, or the lark and the thrush. 
Are ye not much better than they? Most assuredly, 
infinitely better. And you should enjoy yourself so 
much better; so much higher, nobler, and richer 
should your joy be. 



The cow enjoys the green meadow, with or with- 
out flowers, as far as we know, only because she can 
satisfy her hunger. But you and I do not feel joy 
only at the thought of the food value of the meadow ; 
we are directly affected by the beautiful colors and 
graceful forms, and the impression of beauty tunes 
our hearts to joy — a higher and more spiritual joy 
than that of the cow, not so? 

But higher! 

We feel that the fair forms, the odors and colors 
of the flowers, and the quality in us that we are 
pleasantly affected by them and that we receive this 
impression as one of beauty, that this is not a matter 
of chance, but that there is a thought back of it all, 
a good and loving thought, God's thought, — and we 
feel God back of creation, His work. 

It does not disturb us, if some of the learned 
naturalists say: "We have investigated earth and 
plants, animals and men, air and sea, but have no- 
where found a Creator, everywhere matter and na- 
tural laws only, nothing else." 

We might reply: "We are not at all surprised, 
for we did not expect that microscope, chemical ana- 
lysis, or the dissecting knife alone would be able to 
show us God, the Creator. But still less are they 
able to show that He does not exist." 

It might also be natural for us to answer with a 
question: How did these natural laws and the mat- 



10 

ter upon which they work come into existence? Has 
everything, as some would have it, developed from 
one primitive cell? Whence, then, this primitive cell, 
with its wonderful power of development? And does 
not development presuppose a beginning? Has it 
made itself? Come into existence by chance? Would 
not that be a wonder of greater magnitude than the 
wonder of creation? 

The world runs as a great clock, they say, and 
does not need, nor even have any room for God. 

Indeed? A clock! Very well. But who ever 
entertained the absurd idea that a clock could have 
made itself? Whether it be a pocket watch or a 
steeple clock, whether it runs for two weeks or a 
year, every one knows that there is a watchmaker 
back of it. And the more exactly it runs, the greater 
master must he be who made it. 

Considered as a clock, the world must certainly 
be said to be a mechanical masterpiece without equal. 
If we think of everything that moves here, for in- 
stance, the millions of orbs that course through space 
with immense speed without ever colliding or leaving 
their orbits, so far as we know; the circulation of the 
blood in our own bodies; the movement of the sap 
in every blade and leaf, every flower and fruit, where 
every kind of matter is able to find a way of its own, 
one flower becoming red and another white, although 
the white and the red clover draw their nourishment 



11 

from the same soil and enjoy the same dew and the 
same sun; lingonberries become sour and strawber- 
ries sweet, although they grow on the same hillside; 
and even such "small irregularities" do not happen 
as, for instance, that birch bark grows on a pine tree 
or pine needles on a birch, rosebuds on a myrtle, or 
myrtle leaves on a rosebush. When we consider all 
this, do we not receive an overwhelming impression 
of His greatness and power who has builded this 
clock and succeeded in making it run so regularly 
century after century for thousands of years? 

Let all the wise men of the world try to find a 
better explanation of all these problems than the 
plain words of the Bible concerning God's almighty 
"Let there be!" (Gen. 1), and, "He upholdeth all 
things by the word of his power!" (Hebr. 1, 3). 

At all events, they have not succeeded unto 
this day. 

If you hear delightful music from an adjoining 
room, you will, no doubt, enjoy its beauty even 
though you know nothing about the musician — just 
as so many enjoy the beauty of nature without know- 
ing God, who has produced it. But if the doors are 
thrown open, disclosing to you that the musician is 
your dearest friend, will not the music become dearer 
to you and seem doubly beautiful? 

Just so in this case. The more'clearly you realize 
that it is God, your own dear heavenly Father, who 



12 

has brought forth all things and upholds all things, 
the higher and richer will be your enjoyment of the 
beauties of spring and all nature. 

And at the same time, the more carefully you 
study the mighty works of God in nature, and the 
stronger your impression becomes of God's infinite 
power and wealth, as revealed in nature, the more 
confidently will you place yourself in His hand, being 
certain that all the power and all the means that are 
at His disposal will be used in the sendee of father- 
hood to the benefit of you, His child. 

God grant that these thoughts may help you, dear 
young friends — and the rest of us, too — to lay real 
firm hold of the joy of spring! Then it will also 
grow and endure till hoary old age. 



Youth is the springtime of life. 

"Fair is Spring in hearts of youth each morrow. 
Roses bloom on health}'- cheeks so pure ! 
Fair is Joy, and fair each noble Sorrow, 

Love with beauty-tints doth so conjure. 
Life within doth strongly throb, streaming 

Forth in cheerful song and mighty deed, — 
But in song most oft, for song was given 
To voice what hearts of youth do need." 

— M. J. Monrad. 

Healthy and unsullied youth feels that it is related 
to spring, related to the teeming life that sprouts and 
grows, to the smiling blossom and the singing bird, 



13 

to everything that swells with joy, hope, and expecta- 
tion. Like the lily is the clean, chaste heart, like the 
lily of the valley the pleasing modesty of youth, like 
the song of the lark the courageous hope with a thou- 
sand glad expectations ; while health and vitality 
course through every artery and every nerve, as the 
sap of spring in every stalk and stem, bush and 
blade. Oh, the joy of life then! 

Yes, beautiful is spring in the valleys of our 
country ; but we would say : More beautiful is spring 
in the heart of youth. 

Everything that becomes green and grows is 
beautiful, every sprout, every blade that bursts forth 
with the power of life and grows ever taller, if it 
but receives moisture and sunshine. But more beau- 
tiful is that which grows in the heart of youth, kept 
clean and pure. Budding thoughts are loosed from 
bondage, thoughts about yourself, about your life, 
its origin, its plan, and its goal, as well as thoughts 
about everything between heaven and earth, — a vast 
and motley number. But there is unity in them: 
every thought tends higher, ever upward to greater 
clearness and a broader view. And this growth suc- 
ceeds little by little, if He who is the Light of the 
World, the Sun of Righteousness, is the light on 
your way. 

Beautiful is the flower in the garden, in the par- 
lor, in the field, and in the woods, from the valley to 



14 

the top of the mountain. But more beautiful is the 
rose on the cheek of uncorrupted youth, and more 
beautiful ar noble feelings in pure young hearts : 
the feeling of joy at whatsoever is true and beautiful 
and pure and good. But most beautiful of all are 
the roses of love: the love of father and mother and 
sister and brother; the love of faithful friendship, 
with its sincere sympathy and its joy at being able 
to be of assistance, consolation, or pleasure to others ; 
and, let us not forget, love for the chosen one, when 
that time comes; and finally, the queen of all roses, 
the love of God, poured into our hearts through faith 
in God's love for us as revealed in Jesus Christ. And 
together with this always grow the joy and peace of 
knowing oneself encompassed by the love of God, 
the joy in the Lord which gives strength, and the 
peace which keeps our hearts and minds in Christ 
Jesus, our God. 

Beautiful is the concert of spring from the thou- 
sand throats with the accompaniment of brook and 
billow, the falls, and the murmur of pines — all 
blending in beautiful harmony, though every bird 
sings his own melody. But more beautiful still is 
the song of happy youth at work, on festive occa- 
sions, and in church. 

And "song was given to voice what hearts of 
youth do need/' And how much there is to sing 
about: the joy of life, of home, of friendship, of 



15 

spring, and of all nature — our yearnings and our 
hopes, our love, all will break forth in song. And 
still more our religious feelings, our prayers and con- 
fessions, our faith, our peace, will find expression 
in song. 

Behold, such is the breaking forth of spring in 
the life of youth as it will be if God rules. What a 
wealth of beauty and joy! And all this is yours, if 
you but accept, hold fast, and do not waste what God 
would give you. 

And now we say with the Preacher of the old 
covenant: "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and 
let thy heart, cheer thee in the days of thy youth" 
(Eccl. 11, 9). Yes, rejoice! But do not forget that 
you are a human being, do not forget the high value 
and aim of your life, do not forget your responsi- 
bility. Here, too, it holds good that we do not only 
wish you joy, all wholesome and true joy of youth, 
but we are keenly desirous of helping you that it may 
grow and endure even unto the days of old age. For 
this, however, two things are especially required : 
we must all remember, as before stated, that we are 
human beings, or, in other words, we must learn to 
know ourselves ; and, furthermore, we must learn to 
know God as He would be known of us. 



16 



2* Are Ye Not Much Better Than They? 

Thus spoke our Savior, — are ye not much better 
than flower or bird? An explicit exhortation to con- 
sider what we are and to try to make that clear to 
ourselves. Well, what is a human being? What 
are we? 

We are the offspring of God, some of the chief 
poets of the heathens have said. (Acts 17, 28.) 

"God created man in His own image, in the image 
of God created He him," we read on the first page 
of the Bible (Gen. 1, 27). 

"Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not 
yet appear what we shall be : but we know that, when 
He (our Lord Jesus Christ) shall appear, we shall 
be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." Thus 
did the apostle John testify (1 John 3, 2), after he 
had received that Spirit of which our Savior had 
said: "He will guide you into all truth, . . . receive 
of mine, and shall show it unto you (John 16, 13. 14). 

What shall we say to this? 

If we are true to ourselves and let "the weeping 
child which is found in the innermost recesses of 
every person's heart" find utterance, we receive this 
answer : The testimony quoted to show that I am 
from God and that I am permitted to come unto 
Him, sounds just like a song of my native land, that 
alone can satisfy my need and my tears. 



17 

We all feel the truth of the words of the church 
father Augustine: "Our soul is restless and has no 
peace, until it rests in God/' If we were, as some 
say, only matter, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, 
phosphorus, etc., whence this desire to seek and find 
God, a desire which is common to every human be- 
ing? And, furthermore, if there be no God, as 
some say, then zvhy this desire, which is so deeply 
rooted in the nature of man? It would then be an 
absurdity without a parallel in all existence. 

Every living thing needs air and water, and there 
is enough air and water for plants, animals, and 
men. Because the plant needs sunshine, it reaches 
upward to draw life from the light and heat of the 
sun, and behold, the sunbeam comes to meet it. If 
there were no sun, the plant would, if it existed, 
have been formed so that it needed no sunshine. 

And still man, the glory of creation, should have 
this absorbing want, the need of communion with 
God, a thirst for Him, a thirst that can not be satis- 
fied by all the wealth and glories of the world, not by 
anything except Him, and still no God? Impos- 
sible! If there were no God, and man did not pro- 
ceed from Him, man would not have this need and 
yearning for God, this thirst after God. "He weeps 
not for gold who never saw gold." 

The energetic strife against God, in which so 
many engage, is an unconscious acknowledgment of 

2 — Youth and Christianity 



His existence. For sincere men do not as a rule rise 
to combat against something that does not exist. 

Verily, God does exist. All nature, from the 
mighty luminous orbs to the most insignificant 
creeping thing and the smallest blade of grass, testi- 
fies of Him. The Holy Scriptures testify of Him, 
and a voice deep within us says yea and amen to this 
testimony. Thank God, He is, He lives ! "And of 
Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things" 
(Rom. 11, 36). 

And we are His handiwork not only in the sense 
that the flowers and the birds are, but we are created 
in the image of God, that we may by continued de- 
velopment be made more and more like Him, who is 
wise- and good, holy and glorious — proceed from 
light to light, from serenity to serenity — in order 
thereafter to be received into glory, to see Him as 
He is, to dwell with Him in all eternity, and to share 
everything with Him. 

"Our souls were wrought by Thee, our Father, 

In Thee to rise to fate sublime, 
That they might from Thy mercies gather 

The strength to live in likeness Thine. 
Who can the honor fully know 
That God doth here on us bestow? 
Nobility, indeed, it is 
As that of angels in eternal bliss." 

Yes, indeed, a unique nobility ! 

If no fall had intervened, the development might 



19 

have continued unhindered, with an even increase in 
the knowledge of God and His good and holy will, 
increase in love, in desire and ability to do the will 
of God, and increase in joy at being permitted to be 
the blessed servant of the divine Majesty. 

But now we all feel that something that is not 
from God has entered into our nature, a fall has 
taken place, the image of God has been demolished, 
self-love has taken its place. Therefore a natural 
development of human nature, as it is now, does not 
lead to God, but away from God, because self-love 
deposes God from the reign of the human heart and 
life, which by right belong to Him, and places the 
dear Self on the throne, as experience clearly shows 
among all peoples in all lands. 

The fundamental evil is that self-love has thus 
replaced the love of God and His will. And from 
this the evil spreads throughout the entire spiritual 
life, because, when self-love has gained supremacy, 
it acts like blood poison upon the entire inner man, 
upon knowledge, feeling, and will. Self-love destroys 
both vision and judgment, corrupts the will, and de- 
prives a person of joy, the highest and only true and 
lasting joy, the joy in God. 

No, a natural development on the basis of self- 
love would surely not lead back to God, no matter 
how hard mankind would try to place this line of 
development on a high level and choose high and 



20 

noble ideals, etc. No one can lift himself up by the 
hair. The one thing needful here was not a new 
program arranged by the wisest and best of men, 
but the first essential was that the fundamental evil 
be amended, i. e., that the reign of self-love be over- 
thrown, and the love of God become the main-spring 
in life, the image of God be restored in the fallen 
generation. 

But it is also readily understood that mankind 
itself did not possess the power to bring about such 
a fundamental change. And thus there is no possi- 
bility, after the fall, of amending the evil, unless God 
Himself would take hold anew. 

And He has taken hold, He has put something 
new into the world. 

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3, 16). 

He gave His Son to the generation that had cor- 
rupted its path and in self-love had turned away from 
God, from life to death. Thus did God bring some- 
thing new into the world : He gave His Son. 

"But as many as received Him, to them gave He 
power to become the sons of God" (John 1, 12). As 
many as received the Christ of the Bible as the 
Savior, as their Savior, and gave themselves to Him 
in faith, experienced this wonderful thing: the reign 
of self-love was overthrown and the love of God 



21 

became the motive power of life, became their new 
nature, i. e., the image of God was restored in them. 
And on this basis, if God is permitted to rule and 
reign, that development will take place which leads 
nearer and nearer to God, with increase in the knowl- 
edge of God and His will, and increase in the love 
of God and the ability to subdue self-love and to do 
the will of God, and increase in faith and hope, in 
joy and peace. 

And at the same time there is increase in the 
knowledge of self. For the nearer we approach 
Him, who is the perfect light, the more clearly are 
we enabled to see ourselves as we are, and the better 
do we understand what deep marks have been left 
by the fall. 

Whoever has received Christ in faith, has re- 
ceived healing for his fatal illness. "With His stripes 
we are healed" (Is. 53). But we are only convalesc- 
ing, our healing must increase. Self-love no longer 
has dominion over an honest disciple of Christ; it is 
subdued; but still it remains as an evil and tempting 
power within him. Self-love would lead him to dis- 
obedience, impatience, ingratitude, grumbling, and 
stubbornness toward God, and to enmity, irritability, 
anger, hate, and unkind deeds toward men. Self- 
love will infect even his best qualities and lead him 
to secret conceit and self-exaltation or even to do his 
good works that he may have glory of men. 



22 

It always grieves a disciple of Jesus to discover 
such feelings in himself, for there is nothing that he 
would rather do than to keep himself pure and free 
from sin. Sometimes he may become so confused 
that he does not know which way to, turn, and com- 
plains : It seems to me that matters are gradually 
growing worse with me. Then we reply: The sins, 
the soiled and unclean things, were there before, too ; 
but you are just beginning to discover them, because 
you have begun to walk with Him, who is the true 
Light which enlightens every person, and the longer 
you live with Him and the nearer you come to our 
Lord Jesus Christ, the more evil you will discover 
in yourself. 

The fact that the school of experience during our 
walk with Jesus teaches us to know ourselves better 
and better, our weak points, and the dangers that 
threaten us from our old nature, is a growth that 
bears its fruit. It preserves and increases our hu- 
mility, it encourages us to watch and pray, it urges 
us diligently to approach God and ever to seek a 
closer and more intimate union with Him, the foun- 
tain of our life and power, our joy and peace. And 
then that for which we pray in one of our church 
hymns comes to pass: He helps us that "the joy of 
faith may ever grow, with sin and sorrow far below." 



II. 

The Young Christian Life* 



1* The First Germ of Life — Baptism* 

We all know it to be a fact that wherever there is 
life there is development and growth. Consider the 
waving fields of "grain in the fall. What were they 
four to five months earlier? Only black loam every- 
where. And when the seed was put into the ground, 
any one who knew no better would think that here 
nothing could be expected, because everything looked 
so black. 

But behold, while the seed lay there in the 
ground, a development took place, though it was hid 
from view. The grain began to grow, i. e., the germ 
of life which it contained, burst forth, grew larger 
and larger, straightened up, and one fair day became 
visible above the ground. We called it a sprout and 
rejoiced at the sight. 

Just so it is with every one that is born of God, 
1 believe we may be permitted to say, when we think 
of the regeneration of little children in baptism. 

Furthermore: The sprout grew to be a stalk, the 



24 

stalk headed out, and we rejoiced at the sight of the 
green stalk with the first signs of an ear, but we did 
not expect ripe grain to grow in the ear at once. 
We hoped that in due season it would come, and 
behold, it came as we had hoped. And at har- 
vest time there is a heavy stand, each stalk bowed 
by the weight of the ear full of ripe grain, provided 
the good seed has not been choked by weeds or de- 
stroyed by frost or drought, and provided the bless- 
ing from on high, with rain and sunshine from 
heaven, has rested upon it. 

Again I say : Just so is it with him who is born 
of God. 

Just as the farmer who has sown the seed expects 
the sprout, the stalk, the green ear, and the yellow 
ear with ripe grain — not the last first and not all at 
the same time, but everything in order and in due 
season — waits and hopes, confidently and patiently, 
— so ought we older folk to do, and so do we over 
against children and young people, if we have true 
Christian understanding. 

Father and mother saw only water and heard 
only words pronounced by a human voice when they 
brought their little ones to baptism. And every one 
that knew no better would consider baptism only an 
empty form, because even the most acute human 
reason could not understand that a saving work took 
place in the soul of the child during the hour of bap- 



25 

tism. And entirely too many have rejected infant 
baptism for this very reason. 

But, because we remembered the words of our 
Savior, saying that the little children should be 
brought unto Him (Mark 10, 13), and that "except 
a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot 
enter the kingdom of God" (John 3, 5), we brought 
the little ones to baptism in spite of all objections. 
And we were confident that the eternal, divine germ 
of life was deposited in their unconscious spiritual 
life, as the seed in the receptive soil. 

But when we say that life is thus imparted from 
God in baptism, similarly to what happens when the 
seed is put into the ground, we have emphasized only 
one side of the glory of baptism. 

In this connection we would also call attention to 
the following expressions in the ritual of our church, 
which we believe to be fully warranted by the word 
of God, — at baptism : ". . . that the child may 
abide in Christ, even as it has now, through baptism, 
been grafted into Him," and at confirmation: "May 
the triune God, who has adopted thee as His child 
in holy baptism ..." 

When, for instance, a gardener grafts into a vine 
a branch which does not originally belong to it, there 
arises a union of life between the vine and the en- 
grafted branch, the sap of the stem flows into the 
graft, so that it lives, grows, and bears fruit. 



26 

And so it is with our children, when they are bap- 
tized into Christ. 

It sometimes happens that wealthy and childless 
people adopt a poor orphan and receive the strange 
child as their own. Were the child picked up by the 
wayside, were it of low birth, were it born in sin and 
shame, not one of these things would be allowed to 
debase it. By its adoption it is raised from its 
former misery, it is loosed from its relation to its low 
kin, it bears the family name of its new parents, and 
receives all the advantages and privileges that it 
would have had if it had been born as the child of 
the wealthy parents. If they are as they ought to be. 
and fulfill the duties they have assumed, to be as a 
true father and mother to the child, the latter will 
feel itself surrounded by their father- and mother- 
love, feel that it has a good home, receive food, 
clothes, care, bringing-up, schooling, etc. And finally 
it receives the inheritance. 

Thus it is with our little ones when they have 
been baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Ghost. 

Hence, in order to get as many-sided a concep- 
tion as possible of the glory of baptism, we shall 
place these three comparisons side by side: 

1. As a good and rich father adopts a poor child, 
so God the Father in baptism adopts our little ones 
as His children. 



27 

2. As the gardener grafts the weak branch into 
a vigorous stem, so our little ones are in baptism 
grafted into Christ and receive life from Him. 

3. And as the farmer puts the seed into the 
ground in the spring, that it may in due season 
sprout and grow and bear fruit, so the eternal and 
divine germ of life is in baptism implanted in the 
unconscious spiritual life of our little children. 

After this comes the period of development. And 
we could, indeed, not wish for anything better than 
an uninterrupted development. But how often does 
that happen? 

Occasionally we meet believing Christians who 
profess: I am not aware that the life-giving relation 
between me and God, which was established by bap- 
tism, has ever been broken. And it certainly is beau- 
tiful, when the whole life, from cradle to grave, is a 
life with God without the bitter memories which a 
fall always brings with it, and without that injury 
to the soul which invariably results from a life with- 
out God. 

If we ask ourselves : Was I true to my baptismal 
covenant during the age of transition? I am sure 
that many of us must reply : No, I am sorry to say 
that I fell away, I was for a time a stranger to the 
life in God. Others may answer: I do not know. 
It is certainly an unusual thing to meet any one who 
can say that he knows that he has always lived in 



28 

fellowship with God. That some may be the children 
of God, have forgiveness of sins and the advantages 
of adoption, even though they dare not, for a time, 
at least, believe such great things of themselves, is 
another thing. 

In my youth I heard an otherwise well-informed 
man say that it was impossible to remain true to 
one's baptismal covenant. There have also been 
some who have taught that it is impossible for the 
life which God has implanted in the child by baptism 
to die. Thus widely may opinions differ. So great 
may the confusion be in the understanding of this 
point. 

Indeed, that the covenant remains unbroken on 
the part of God, that with more than a father's love 
He watches for every erring son and daughter, and 
that He receives every one that is converted, that 
"ariseth and goeth to his Father," is an indisputable 
fact. But to conclude from this that those whose 
entire lives show that they do not care for God and 
His will, also possess the life in God, is preposterous. 
But it is just as preposterous to say that the life can 
not be preserved, that it is impossible to remain true 
to the baptismal covenant. 



29 



2* Are We True to Our Baptismal Covenant? 

Well, what is required for that? 

Let me at once confess, that I believe that we 
older Christians very often make the mistake of ex- 
pecting more than we ought to from children and 
young people, and that we, as a consequence of this, 
are too ready to believe that in this or that child all 
life is extinct. And then it seems to us that every- 
thing that has been done for its Christian training 
has been wasted; the blessings of baptism, the in- 
fluence of the Christian home, the religious instruc- 
tion, confirmation — all is wasted ! 

And the deeper and more serious our own re- 
ligious life is, the more easily do we make the mis- 
take of expecting or demanding more than we ought 
to and of looking too darkly on the life of child and 
young people, and that we, as a consequence of this, 
which is so absolutely necessary here. 

But we may take too bright, or rather, too care- 
less a view of it, so that we hardly see any danger, 
as long as the young people do not come into conflict 
with the civil law. 

Let us try to get a correct view of the situation. 

a. Childhood. When a child from three to seven 
years old is glad to hear us tell about Jesus and His 
acts of love towards mankind, His good will towards 
children, etc., is glad to obey father and mother, 



30 

is truthful and upright if it has erred, etc., we should 
rejoice at these evidences that the spiritual life im- 
planted by God is sprouting and growing. But re- 
ligious prodigies, in whom the fear of God manifests 
itself as a mature Christian's sorrow on account of 
sin, and joy on account of grace, we should neither 
expect nor desire. 

If we then in the succeeding years of childhood, 
from the age of seven or eight to thirteen or four- 
teen, take care that the germ of Christian life re- 
ceives the heavenly dew and sunshine that it needs, 
the light and warmth of love and the guidance and 
admonition of a good example, we shall see such evi- 
dence of the growth of the seed that our hearts must 
rejoice, if we but have eyes to see with and hearts to 
understand with, so that we at least perceive that as 
yet the time has not come for the mature ear, but 
only for the green sprout, and that only a poor 
farmer loses courage as soon as he discovers that 
there are weeds in his field. 

As the truest expression of the fear of God at this 
age, too, we must mention that the child honors 
father and mother. 

And I say : Blessed is every one who does this ! 
Therein he has a girdle of strength of inestimable 
value in the impending battle of life. And his life is 
blessed by the promise of the fourth commandment : 
It shall be well with thee. 



31 

b. The age of transition is properly designated as 
an extremely dangerous period. And it would, in- 
deed, be well if both old and young had a better idea 
than most people have both of the special dangers of 
this age and of the power which, in spite of all, is 
able to carry the young people through the dangers 
and difficulties. 

In the first place, we shall consider the year of 
confirmation. And I believe we may justly say that 
the serious thoughts during the preparation for con- 
firmation, the impressions during the act of con- 
firmation and during the first communion, do not 
pass by so entirely without leaving any trace, as it 
often seems. It is undoubtedly true of many mop 
than we generally suppose, that the thought of God, 
the feeling of His presence, the good resolutions, 
and many other things that formerly grew in the 
soul of the child as feeble sprouts, during this time 
grow stronger, and that the voice of conscience about 
responsibility and trespasses is heard more clearly 
than before. From this comes a more conscious 
need of forgiveness, prayer to God for forgiveness, 
and power to be true to the good resolutions. 

Why dare we hope that this is the case — the 
young people themselves as a rule not being very 
communicative concerning these matters ? Because we 
older people look back upon our own experience in 
that age. And then I am sure that there are many 



32 

of us who can testify that such was the case with us. 
And we conclude that the young people of to-day can- 
not avoid having experiences of a similar nature, be- 
cause the human heart, also the heart of youth, is the 
same everywhere and at ail times, and God is the same. 

The manner in which we give expression to — or 
perhaps try to conceal — the innermost life of our 
heart, may change with time, but the life itself in the 
depth of the soul is ever essentially the same. 

The young people's lack of clearness in regard to 
their own relation to God combined with a strong 
feeling of diffidence in disclosing the emotions of the 
heart, which is especially prominent at this age, as a 
rule makes them uncommunicative and at times en- 
tirely reticent towards us older people. But we must 
not at once consider that as a sign of spiritual dull- 
ness or indifference. 

But is this life? This aforesaid feeling of the 
presence of God, the admonitions of conscience in 
regard to sin and guilt, prayer to God for forgive- 
ness, purpose to live according to God's command- 
ments, and prayer for strength to be true to this 
purpose, which so many even of the so-called medi- 
ocre candidates for confirmation experience — is this 
the life in God? 

Some will say yes, and some no, I believe. But 
I am sure we shall agree on one point: It is at all 
events not a sign of death. 



33 

What, then? Is it a sign that the divine germ of 
life that was implanted in the infant soul by baptism 
still lives and that it is just now making a renewed 
effort at stronger growth? 

Yes, that may, at least, be the case. The life of 
the large child who remains true to its baptismal 
vow may manifest itself in this way, as long as there 
has not been so complete an awakening that the 
Christian life of the child has developed into the 
conscious life of faith and charity of the adult. In 
this way it may manifest itself — with a good deal 
of weeds, it is true, hut more or less, with different 
individuals. 

Whether this effort is to succeed or not depends 
largely on the development that has gone before as 
well as on the influences that are brought to bear on 
the youth, both in the home and outside of it, during 
the time immediately following upon confirmation. 
It may become an effort which falls powerless to the 
ground, a last effort, perhaps for a long time, perhaps 
for ever, because the earlier development had not 
given the power necessary to overcome evil ten- 
dencies and pluck out the weeds that spring up in 
one's own bosom, or because the youth is thrust out 
into the world, which with its iron-shod heel tramples 
upon the sprouts of life that were just about to grow 
and flourish. And it is unspeakably sad to witness 
the many instances in which this occurs. 

3- -Youth and Christianity 



34 

The more should all true friends of youth rejoice 
when, for all that, it turns out as well as it often 
does. We must rejoice when we see that the baptis- 
mal grace, the influence of the Christian home, the 
influence in Christianity by teacher and pastor, the 
confirmation, etc., have, in spite of everything that 
tends in the opposite direction, been able to give the 
power of victory in the hour of temptation, so that 
the youth, as far as we can judge, has cleansed his 
way and tried to live according to the law of God, 
though, perhaps, he does not think of God very often 
and does not think just as you or I do, perhaps does 
not pray to Him very often, and does not pray just 
as you or I pray. 

Even though the fear of God in the young people 
at the age we have in mind may not be just like ours, 
like father's or mother's, we must not immediately 
think : Now the life of baptism is entirely dead 
and gone. 

Let us think of the religious life of the disciples 
of Jesus before they had experienced the great Easter 
and Pentecost. How very defective it was ! What 
would have become of it, if Jesus had not cared for 
them with the earnest sympathy and understanding 
that He did? 

What would have become of the disciples them- 
selves, if He had judged thus : Your faith and 
charity avail nothing, for they are not of the proper 



35 

kind, too much infected by worldly and selfish in- 
terests ? 

But He does not judge thus. Ye of little faith, 
He calls them, yea, fools and slow of heart to be- 
lieve. But He recognizes the beginning of life that 
is there, calls them His friends, hails them with a 
greeting of peace, does not reject them because there 
was as yet no pentecostal life — because they did 
not have the courage to testify. 

He gives the needed time for development, and 
meanwhile lets them understand that He thinks well 
of them. Shall we hot try to be like. Him in this 
respect, also? 

Or, let us older folk look back upon our own youth. 
Who was it that did most to help the weak begin- 
nings of iife in us to a healthy growth in the period 
of transition, and later on? Who was our best sup- 
port? Was it those who gave us to understand that 
they considered us to be spiritually dead and treated 
ns as such ? Or was it those who let us feel, without 
making us conceited, that they thought well of us, 
often better than we did ourselves? No one with a 
little experience will hesitate at the answer. 

And thus we will try to think well of youth where 
facts do not compel us to think evil, feeling sure 
that we have the approval of our Savior, who never 
broke the bruised reed or quenched the smoking flax 
(Matt. 12, 20). 



36 

These remarks are especially addressed to us older 
folk, to father and mother. For I have been pon- 
dering what tender Christian hearts may have suf- 
fered when they thought it necessary to say of their 
own son or daughter — "entirely dead to the life in 
God, however kind and good in every other respect." 
Therefore I want to try to be of some help to such 
parents with an encouraging word. Friends, let us 
not be too ready to think evil — never believe the 
worst, unless facts compel us. 

Furthermore, I have thought what great harm we 
older folk do if through want of understanding we 
judge unjustly in these matters, and so I found 
a twofold reason for trying to say something by way 
of guidance, hoping that it might be of benefit to 
some one. 

And last, but not least, I have been anxious, to 
say to you, young people : 

You are richer than you think, for the germ of 
eternal life was implanted in you in the hour of bap- 
tism, a life which has every qualification for unfold- 
ing here in time in faith and charity and every good 
deed according to the example of the life of Jesus 
Christ, and hereafter to unfold in eternal glory. It is 
therefore important that you guard and nourish it 
well. For if you do not do so, it may fare as the 
seed in the field fares when it gets no sunshine and 
moisture — it withers and dies. 



37 

3* Not a Pillow, But an Incentive* 

I do not want to make a pillow for any one's 
conscience. I have not intended to say that some of 
you young people do not need awakening and con- 
version. Indeed, not. We are all in need of that. 

For it is not only the spiritually dead who are in 
need of an awakening. Just as the vital powers in 
nature are awakened from their winter slumber by 
the light and warmth of the spring sun, so in this 
case. The spiritual life which God by baptism im- 
planted in the unconscious child is gradually awak- 
ened when the Spirit of God is permitted to testify to 
the awakening consciousness of sin and grace. And 
you must not suppose that you are through with this 
awakening. No, you need ever to be awakened 
anew, that you may be more awake. Every Chris- 
tian needs a constant awakening. 

Neither is it only the spiritually dead that are in 
need of conversion. According as it learns to dis- 
tinguish between right and wrong, the child who is 
true to its baptismal covenant must day by day turn 
away from sin and say no, whenever tempted, and 
turn to God to do His will. But this is just what 
you and I must continue to do as long as we live. 

Therefore I said that we all need awakening and 
conversion. 

But awakening and conversion will always be 



38 

different in one who has remained true to his bap- 
tismal covenant, from that in one who is fallen. 

Not a pillow for the conscience, but an incentive, 
do I wish my speech to be, an incentive to use all 
diligence in striving to make sure your calling and 
election. 

Let us again think of the twelve. What would 
have become of them, if they had said : "When the 
Exalted Master has called us His friends and greeted 
us with peace, we need nothing more/' and then had 
rested easy? 

But they did not do that. No, they continued 
with one accord in prayer for the gift of the Holy 
Spirit. And what would they have accomplished 
without the baptism of the Spirit on the day of Pen- 
tecost ? 

My young friends, you also need a baptism of the 
Spirit to enable your inner life to break forth and 
develop into the conscious life of faith and charity of 
the adult and to grow unto a perfect man in Christ. 

May this be your constant prayer : Fulfill on me, 
O God, Thy promise of the outpouring of the Spirit ! 
even though you have by the grace of God been pre- 
served from the great fall, by which life is generally 
lost. 

According as God answers your prayer, it comes 
to pass that you become more and more seriously 
concerned about your salvation, more now than dur- 



39 

ing childhood years. Your eyes are more and more 
opened to that which is sinful and evil in heart and 
mind, in word and deed. Your conscience is more 
wakeful and tender ; you feel a more conscious need 
of the great grace, the grace of forgiveness ; and you 
receive more power from God to win in the struggle 
against sin. 

And according as God answers your prayer for 
the gift of the Spirit, it also comes to pass that your 
eyes are opened to the glory of Jesus Christ; He be- 
comes more glorious to you ; and your soul clings to 
Him as your Friend and Savior, your Lord and 
your God. 

But this is awakening, conversion, and faith, as 
these may manifest themselves in one who has re- 
mained true to the baptismal covenant. 



III. 

The First Communion* 



1* A Large Child* 

A vision rises before me. 

Yesterday was Confirmation Sunday. To-morrow 
communion will be celebrated for those who were 
confirmed. One of them sits alone in his room, can 
not bring himself to retire as early as usual, must 
sit up a while — - to think it over. 

Partake of the Lord's Supper to-morrow ! So 
near has it come, this which I have often wondered 
about, sometimes feared, lately dreaded. 

No, not dreaded. That would not be right, the 
pastor said. But I fear I dread it a little, anyway. 

What is the Sacrament of the Altar? What did 
the pastor, the teacher, the textbook say? 

Well, I remember only a little, and understand 
much less. But that is just my own fault. I am 
afraid I have not been serious enough. O, how I 
wish I had thought more seriously of this before, 



41 

for then, I suppose, it would not have been so hard 
for me now ! Would that the day were past ! 

I heard A. and B. encourage one another by say- 
ing: "Why should we take it so seriously? I, for 
my part, certainly will not worry about it, no, not 
any more than . . ., and not I, either." They said 
something else, too, of which I neither dare nor will 
think. 

I also heard C. say something about not com- 
muning. "Why take part in something of which one 
doesn't understand the least? What's that good for? 
No, it's just brave to have your own opinions and 
dare to admit that you have your mind made up and 
don't only follow the crowd." 

I wonder if he meant it seriously, and if he (she) 
really will stay away. 

At all events, I can not stay away. For it is de- 
cided that I am to partake. Though no one has said 
that I must, I know well enough that father and 
mother want me to — and God desires it, Jesus 
wishes it. 

I must go this one time, anyway. It sort of be- 
longs to being properly confirmed. 

The body and blood of Jesus Christ — under 
bread and wine, can that be possible? 

Yes, Jesus has said it, and with God nothing is 
impossible. 

If it were not for this terrible word: "He that 



42 

eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh 
damnation to himself' ! 

To whom do these words apply? 

How I fear that they apply to me, — perhaps to 
many others, too, but, of course, that does not help 
me. 

I should examine myself, it says in our textbook, 
examine my repentance of sin, my faith in Jesus, and 
my new purpose; but I cannot find that I have any 
of all these. 

Yes, I certainly have sin, but repentance ? 

Sin — ■ against the fourth commandment, against 
father and mother. I am afraid I never have been 
as kind to them as I should have been. I remember 
that time — and that time, and many other times. 
O, how I wish that I had been much better. But I 
do not repent as I should. And it certainly is not 
the fourth commandment only that I have sinned 
against. 

Would that I could repent as I should ! 

Examine my faith ! I wonder if I have any true 
faith? 

What is faith in Jesus? 

True faith is that a repentant sinner lays hold 
on Jesus as his only Savior, finds refuge in Him 
and His merit, and trusts in Him with perfect con- 
fidence. 

Yes, I know that, all right. But have I such 



43 

faith? Am I a repentant soul, and do I lay hold on 
Jesus as my Savior? I really do not know. 

It seems to me that I take refuge in Him and His 
merit, for I know no other recourse. But I am 
afraid that I do not trust in Him with perfect confi- 
dence, because I am so full of fear. 

Examine my new purpose ! Is it my honest pur- 
pose to desist from all sin? Is it my honest purpose 
to do the will of God — better hereafter than before ? 

Yes, I think I do want to, but still I am afraid 
that my purpose is not as honest and sincere as it 
ought to be. 

No, I am afraid that there is nothing in me which 
is as it ought to be. O God, be merciful unto me, 
a sinner ! 

But now I remember that that was one of the last 
things the pastor said to us when he spoke about pre- 
paration for communion: "If you have nothing else 
with which to come than the sigh of the publican, you 
are well prepared. It may be," he said, "that it will 
seem as though you have neither repentance nor 
faith and that you will feel very poor and helpless. 
If so, come with this prayer in your heart : God, be 
merciful unto me, a sinner ! And you will be heartily 
welcome as a guest of our Lord Jesus. For He re- 
ceives sinners that desire grace." 

Praise God, how this eased my heart ! I will try 
to cling to this and be of good cheer. 



44 

This man went down to his house justified, said 
Jesus of the publican, and his sins were forgiven. 
The same He will say to me: Thy sins are forgiven 
thee, peace be with thee! 

Thanks be to Thee, dear God, that Thou for- 
givest my sins and that Thou lettest me be Thy 
child ! Lord Jesus, bless the communion for me to- 
morrow ! Amen. 

And then — goes to bed and sleeps like a child. 



This newly confirmed youth surely was a wel- 
come guest at the Savior's communion table. And 
if we came in such a state of mind, we received bless- 
ing from our first communion, although we did, per- 
haps, not see clearly wherein this blessing consisted 
and, perhaps, do not see it clearly unto this day. 

If we came in such a state of mind, I said. I do 
not mean that all of us thought and felt exactly the 
same. Perhaps some were more developed, and 
thought and felt more, others less. But if you look 
closely at the image of the soul which I just showed 
you, I think many of you, perhaps most of you, will 
find something in which you recognize yourselves. 
And I know that all those who were not entirely 
indifferent and despised the holy things, had at least 
this sigh in common : God, be merciful unto me now ! 
Lord Jesus, let me be Thine! Help me, that I may 



45 

ever be with Thee! But that was the state of mind 
of the publican as it may appear in a child. 

But this is entirely too little for one who has 
been confirmed, we perhaps think now, when we are 
a few years older and have had various and more 
serious experiences, — entirely too little repentance, 
prayer, and faith. And perhaps we are inclined to 
think that such communicants are rather injured than 
benefited by their communion. But thus we should 
not think. 

Confirmed youths of from fourteen to sixteen 
years of age are generally large children, as far as 
the development of their religious life is concerned, 
as well as in other respects. There may, indeed, even 
at that age be such a conscious and decided breach 
with the commandments of God and the childhood 
faith that the young person must be said to have 
fallen from baptismal grace. I am sure there are 
some among us who with horror have seen some- 
thing of that. And there may be awakening, con- 
version, prayer, and faith, just as we find them in 
adults. But more often there is neither the one nor 
the other. 

What is there, then? 

Then this is the condition of the large child : It 
is drawn to God : — and shrinks back from Him ; there 
is unquestioning faith and there is yearning faith ; now 
and then there is a feeling of sin and of guilt, but less 



46 

of what we adults understand by repentance, less of 
what we understand by prayer, but still both repent- 
ance and prayer — after the manner of childhood. 
One moment the child may be heartily sorry for 
some error, the next moment the grief may be en- 
tirely gone ; one moment a sincere sigh : God, help 
me to be Thy child and not to sin against Thee ! The 
next moment — forgotten and gone. 

This is because the child, also the large child, is 
more impulsive than we adults are. While the emo- 
tions of us older folk may be deeper, like the great 
ocean wave, those of the child are more like the little 
ripples that ruffle the surface of the water. 

But the emotions of the large child, that have 
been alluded to, repentance, prayer, and faith, are 
worked by the Spirit of God, just as surely as are 
the corresponding deeper emotions of the adult. 

It is the same breeze that passes over the great 
ocean and over the little pond. And still no one asks 
why there are not as mighty waves on the little pond 
as on the ocean. Every one know r s that it is because 
the pond is so small in compass and in depth. 

The mind of the child is like the pond. 



47 



2* Confessional Sermon, Communion Address^ 

If I could reach all of these large children with 
a confessional sermon or communion address before 
their first communion, I would bring out what I am 
about to present to you now, not all at once or in one 
speech, but a few thoughts at a time. But in the 
following I want to collect that which to me would 
seem especially appropriate on such occasions. 

"Abide in me, and I in you!" (John 15, 4). These 
words Jesus spoke to His grieving friends the last 
evening that He was with them before His death. 

Abide in me ! the Savior says to us, to all of you, 
to each one of you to-day. Abide in me ! 

In order to abide in Him one must have come 
to Him. 

You have come to Jesus in holy baptism, have 
been grafted into Him by baptism as when the gar- 
dener takes a small, weak branch and graft it into a 
vigorous tree. 

And you have come to Him later on in years of 
childhood every time that you have let the Word and 
Spirit draw your heart to God, so that you wanted 
to belong to Jesus, to do his will and shun sin. 

. And every time you prayed: Lord Jesus, incline 
my heart to fear and love Thee, hold me fast unto 
Thee, and keep me from sin ! you came to Him. 

Every time the grief of sin compelled you to go 



48 

to Jesus and pray: Lord, forgive me what I have 
done, help me that I may not do it again! you came 
to Jesus. 

And if your heart was in the confession and 
promise that you made at your confirmation so that 
you were in earnest, you came to Jesus on your con- 
firmation day. 

To-day, when you think of the years and days 
that are past, think how graciously and faithfully 
the dear Savior has led -you and borne you unto this 
day, I am sure you heartily wish that you had been 
better and more obedient than you have been, and 
that you had never grieved Him. And I am sure 
that, especially to-day, you see more clearly than be- 
fore that you lack much of having been as kind and 
good as you ought to have been. Surely you recall 
more than one time that you were not so kind and 
obedient to father and mother, or so friendly and 
good to sister or brother, as you should have been. 
You remember how you transgressed the fourth com- 
mandment as well as several others. You can not 
forget how God knew it all, even the evil thoughts in 
your heart, and that which no man saw or heard. 
God saw r it all, God knows it. 

And when you think of all this, you heartily de- 
sire: Would that I could properly repent, and would 
that I had a true living faith! 

But then you do not find, either, that you have re- 



49 

pentance and faith with which you may be perfectly 
satisfied, and you feel so very poor and helpless. 

But during all this, your heart sighs : God, be 
merciful unto me, a sinner! Lord Jesus, forgive me 
my sins, let me be Thine! 

But again this is coming to Jesus. 

And hear what the Savior to-day also says to 
each one of you who comes to Him in this way. He 
says: "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise 
cast out." 

Keep that word in your heart and say : Thanks 
be to Thee, Lord Jesus, that Thou wilt not cast me 
out ! Thanks be to Thee, that Thou receivest me 
and that I may be Thine! 

Behold, then you have this day also come to Him. 

And now it behooves you to abide with Him and 
in Him. 

How is this possible? 

In the first place: You must continue to come to 
Jesus in the future as in the past, ever anew come 
to Him. 

You must let the Word and Spirit of God draw 
your heart to God, so that it may ever be your desire to 
belong to Jesus, to do His will, and to shun sin. You 
must hereafter, as heretofore, pray: Jesus, incline my 
heart to fear and love Thee, hold me fast unto Thee, 
and help me against sin. And when you find that you 
have sinned, you must go to Jesus now, as before, 

4 — Youth and Christianity 



50 

and pray : Lord, forgive me what I have done and 
help me, that I may not do it again ! 

In order to abide with Jesus you must constantly 
come to Him anew, just as we come to Him when 
we take His word to heart and when we pray to 
Him. 

But because Jesus saw that these disciples w T ith 
whom He supped the evening of that Maundy-Thurs- 
day, needed something besides the word and prayer, 
in order to abide with Him, He gave them the Sacra- 
ment of the Altar, the sacrament of His body and 
blood, and said : "Eat, drink, this do in remembrance 
of me !" 

And He has seen that you, too, need something 
besides the word and prayer in order to abide with 
Him. Therefore He has invited you to His com- 
munion table to-day. 

With genuine sympathy He said to Peter when 
He foresaw the approaching dangers: "Satan hath 
desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat : 
But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." 

With the same disposition He looks upon each 
one of you and says : You will also be sifted as 
wheat. You will be tempted by your fellow men, by 
friends and enemies, and you will be tempted by the 
evil thoughts of your own heart, more hereafter than 
before. And the devil is active in all this as he was 
in the temptation of Peter. He adds fuel to the fire 



51 

of temptation to bring about your fall. He who 
sifted Peter will not spare you. But that you may 
be able to overcome in all temptations, that you may 
ever abide in me and I in you, I have set my com- 
munion table in the congregation and invite each one 
of you : Eat, drink, this do in remembrance of me ! 
He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, 
dwelleth in me, and I in him. 

O, when I consider that it is the invitation of our 
precious and glorious Savior himself that I can an- 
nounce to you, that you are this day invited to receive 
the most precious of all gifts which He has to bestow 
upon His friends here on earth, invited to enter into 
the most intimate communion with Him, so that they 
are fulfilled on you, those words that He spoke to 
His disciples : "You in me ... I in you," I feel 
something of what I suppose the poet must have felt 
when he said : "O would, my God, that I could praise 
Thee with thousand tongues by day and night !" 

In other words, I wish that I were able to unfold 
to you the glory of the Sacrament of the Altar in 
the way it should be done, so that you might ap- 
proach it with cheerful hearts and ever be desirous 
of returning. 

You have seen mother take the little child in her 
arms and press it to her bosom, and you knew that 
the child fared better there than any other place on 
earth. Were it weeping, the tears ceased; were it 



52 

fearful, it now felt perfectly safe on mother's bosom ; 
were it weary, it found there sweet rest. 

Thus Jesus draws you unto Himself at the com- 
munion table. There you approach more closely to 
Him than ever. 

But even the best of our earthly blessings, for in- 
stance, the safety, the peace, the rest of the child on 
mother's bosom, will ever be an imperfect image of 
the blessings which God bestows upon us at His 
table, where He binds us more intimately to Himself 
than is possible on any other occasion. 

I would fain help you to approach it, as you 
would a festival of joy, with a cheerful heart. For 
the Sacrament of the Altar is, indeed, a feast, though 
much more glorious than all that is called joyous 
and festive, even as the heavens are higher than the 
earth. 

Is it not ever so, that the more loving and good 
he who invites us, the more we appreciate the in- 
vitation? But here you are invited by Him who in 
infinite love stoops down to the weakest disciple and 
says: "As the Father hath loved me, so have I 
loved you." 

Is it not ever so, that the more wealthy, the more 
exalted and mighty the host, the greater is the hQnor 
of being among the guests? 

If our king, our own dear, good king, gave a 
dinner at his palace in Christiania, and you were 



53 

invited, would you not consider it one of the greatest 
honors that could be shown you? 

But if the king also addressed you personally, 
called you his friend, and assured you of a hearty 
welcome in his house and at his table, as often as 
you wanted to come, and then added: If you are in 
need or in danger, just come to me, and I will help 
you — ■ you would think that it was beyond measure 
great. 

But here the host is the King of kings, the Son 
of man, who sitteth on the right hand of the Father, 
the Son of God the Father, He who could say: "All 
power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth, . . . 
all things that the Father hath are Mine." 

Therefore, it seems to me, we have reason to 

sing: 

O great bequest, 

My thought it overwhelms, 
To be His guest, 

Who in the highest dwells ! 

If you ask: What spiritual gifts do I receive in 
the Sacrament of the Altar? we reply: You receive 
Jesus, the Savior Himself. 

In the sacrament you receive Him, who in infinite 
love sacrificed His life and blood to save you. You 
receive Him who, after being dead and buried, con- 
quered death, arose in glory, lives in eternity, and is 
with His own unto the end of the world. He who 
will raise up me and all others from the dead, sit in 



54 

judgment, and take all those who here on earth have 

received Him as their Savior home to His eternal, 

glorious habitations, which He has prepared for all 

His followers, — He gives Himself to His guests at 

the communion table. 

Friends give one another gifts of friendship, 

princes give princely gifts, but Jesus, our Savior, 

gives more, — He gives Himself. Here you can 

sing: 

"In my heart's shrine, 

Savior mine, 

1 Thee confine 

With all Thy gifts and graces.'' 

Do not make yourself worry by brooding over 
how bread and wine can be the body and blood of 
Jesus, — not represent, and not be changed to, but be 
the body and blood of Jesus. I believe the terms in 
which Luther has interpreted the glory of the sacra- 
ment are the best that have so far been found in earthly 
language, and explain our Savior's meaning most satis- 
factorily. But I do not believe that any of us shall be 
able to understand this mystery thoroughly until we 
reach home and shall see everything in the light of 
eternity. Until then the words of St. Paul will apply 
to Luther and Calvin and Zwingli and the Catholics 
and to all of us: "For we know in part, and we 
prophesy in part." But it is plain to everybody that, 
when Jesus said: "This is my body . . . my blood, " 
He wanted to say that in the sacrament He gives us 



55 

Himself in the most effective manner, as verily and 
effectively as it can be done while we are here on 
earth. 

Cling to this fact, then, that He gives you Him- 
self, that He may abide in you with the benefit of 
His death and the power of His life, with all His 
grace and love. 

But, you ask, how can I, with my small and nar- 
row heart, be able to receive such a great gift? 

Yes, dear child, I have asked myself the same 
question. And I must confess that it is unto this 
day the great sorrow of my life that my heart has 
been and still is too small and narrow to receive all 
the wealth of comfort and peace and joy and power 
which the Lord Jesus has wanted to give me when 
He has given me Himself in holy communion. I can, 
indeed, very well understand you when you speak of 
your narrow heart. 

And still, in the sacrament you do receive the 
Lord Jesus with all that He is, even though your 
little heart is narrow. 

It is the same sun that is reflected in the tiny 
drop of dew and in the mighty sea. The drop and 
the sea both in their way receive the whole sun and 
hide its beautiful image, although neither the drop 
nor the sea is large enough to contain the mighty 
source of light. 

Of course, every figure of speech is inadequate. 



56 

And the weak point in this comparison is, you will 
notice, that the drop and the sea receive only an 
image of the sun, while in the sacrament we receive 
Jesus Himself. 

Jesus is the sun. And you must receive Him as 
the dew-drop receives the image of the sun until you 
can receive Him as the mighty sea receives it. 

Does not the little forget-me-not receive the full 
light and warmth of the sun as well as the mighty 
palm? Does not the sun give itself to the little plant 
as well as to the large tree? It glows just as warmly 
and beams just as brightly upon the plant as upon the 
tree, and gives to both enough for life and growth. 
And at the same time there are thousands upon thou- 
sands of other growths, large and small, that receive 
light and warmth from the same sun, and all plenti- 
fully. 

And thus, though you feel small and slight, you 
receive the entire Savior so that He is yours, verily 
belongs to you with all that He has — -to you just as 
well as to the most mature and advanced of the 
Lord's disciples. 

And every time you return to His communion 
table He will increase your faith, your love, and your 
obedience, so that the life which flows from Him into 
your soul, when He gives you Himself in holy com- 
munion, may from year to year grow stronger. 

But make diligent use of the power He gives. 



57 

Then you will experience that the power is present. 
Nay, in what other way could you experience it? 

Make use of the power you receive day by day 
to overcome your selfishness and to do what you 
know to be the will of God! 

Strive to be kind and friendly when you are 
tempted to unkindness ; to be patient when you are 
tempted to impatience; to be morally pure when you 
are tempted to impurity; to speak the truth when 
tempted to falsehood ; to do good to them that annoy 
you ; and to be of help and comfort and joy and benefit 
to whoever needs yOur help — just as Jesus was! 

Strive, by the power which Jesus gives you when 
He gives you Himself, to purge all that is sinful, 
evil and ugly from your heart and life, and strive to 
be like Jesus in all your life and conduct ! Then you 
will experience that it was not in vain that Jesus 
said: "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my 
blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." You will ex- 
perience the power and the blessing of the sacrament. 

3* Do Not Neglect the Lord's Supper! 

"I must go to communion this one time, because 
it sort of belongs to being properly confirmed, and 
later — let it be." 

Many have chosen this course. Their reasons 
may have been of various kinds. 



58 

There were those who even at this early age posi- 
tively turned away from God and therefore also 
turned their back upon the communion table. 

Others remained away for other reasons. I be- 
lieve that a faulty view of the sacrament very often 
is the reason. Likewise a faulty view of what our 
condition must be in order that we may be blessed 
by our communion. 

"It is so dangerous to partake of the sacrament, 
because one might eat and drink damnation to one- 
self. That is the reason I stay away," say others. 

When this is urged by grown-up people as a reason 
for staying away from the Lord's Supper, I am sure 
it is in many cases only a pretext. They know that 
they live in sin and do not want to abandon it, but 
they try to gloss over their condition and seek re- 
assurance by trying to make themselves and others 
believe that it really is conscientiousness, honesty, even 
"piety/' which causes them to neglect the Lord's 
Supper. 

Where there are pangs of conscience and sin- 
cere prayer to God for light and comfort, this con- 
dition, that one does not dare to partake of the 
sacrament because of unworthiness, will at least not 
continue. For God has promised to give light to 
the sincere. 

But when large children, the newly confirmed, 
choose to remain away after having partaken of the 



59 

Lord's Supper that one time, even though they do 
purpose to fear and love God, I have reason to be- 
lieve that in a great many cases the cause really is 
that they- think it is so dangerous to commune. But, 
perhaps, it never occurs to them that it is dangerous 
to remain away. 

How I wish I might say to these: Do consider 
that it is your Savior who invites you to His table! 
He surely knows better than you do, better than 
any person on earth, what you need. He, the only 
one who has both might and means, both power 
and will to make your soul truly strong and free 
and light and beautiful and good and happy and 
joyous and blessed in time and eternity, He invites 
you to His communion table because He sees that 
you need it, invites you to the table that He gave 
His life and blood to establish for His friends on 
earth. He invites you, and you turn your back and 
do not come! Perhaps you think that this is not 
dangerous ? 

You would not dare to insult the king, no, nor 
even a friend among your equals, by slighting an 
invitation. But here the King of kings, the Friend 
of all friends, invites. How do you dare to remain 
away ? 

And when you consider how loving and kind He 
is who invites, how can you possibly want to stay 
away? 



60 

I want to say: For God's sake, and for your own 
salvation's sake, do not stay away from the com- 
munion table ! 

But not only that. I also want to say: Dear 
young people, partake of the sacrament often ! 

Do not let yourself be restrained by the fact that 
there are others who come only once or twice a year! 
When sincere Christians do not come oftener, it must 
be because of the mistaken idea that there are so 
many things in which we must be prepared before 
we can with a good conscience commune. Friends, 
do not make this mistake! 

There are not so "many things," but only one 
thing that is needful, and that is that you do want 
to come to Jesus, want to come to Him to receive 
power to overcome your sins and to be like Him in 
your life. You may be sure that you will receive 
more of this power if you partake often than if you 
commune only once or twice a year. The oftener 
you come to the communion table, the more will you 
feel at home there, the more confidential will the 
relation, the closer and more intimate will the union 
be between you and your Savior. But the more 
rarely you come, the more like a stranger you will 
feel at the communion table. And at last you may 
feel so much like a stranger that you feel as though 
it is not for you, you may just as well stay away, 
and so you remain away entirely. 



61 

What do you lose by remaining away from the 
Lord's Supper? 

God grant, that I might tell you as I feel that it 
ought to be told ! 

In the first place: You get out of the habit of 
coming really near to your Savior. If you still try 
to pray to Him once in a while, you feel that your 
mind and your thoughts are so wonderfully strange 
towards Him, and He — as a stranger to you, in 
spite of all that you know and hear of Him. And 
then the result generally is that you pray less and 
less, and that you neglect more and more to do as 
Mary did — sit at the feet of the Savior and listen 
to His speech. Thus you soon get out of the habit 
of praying and of using the Word of God. 

And if you still occasionally attend public wor^ 
ship, you do not feel as though it is anything espe- 
cially for you. The reading of the texts, the prayers, 
the sermon, the hymns, — you hear it all, but seem- 
ingly at a distance. It all seems so strange, both the 
expressions and the thoughts, just because your mind 
and your thoughts are out of the habit of considering 
the things that pertain to the kingdom of God. 

But the fact that you develop along these lines 
is in itself a very serious matter. 

You, who were in baptism adopted by the Lord 
God in heaven, the God of all grace and love, adopted 
as His child and grafted into Jesus Christ as a branch 



62 

in a tree — these are His own words about the rela- 
tion between Him and you — in order that His holy 
love might flow into your soul and become the motive 
power in your life, just as the sap of the tree flows 
into the branch and twig — you become as a stran- 
ger in your Father's house, a stranger to your God, 
to your Savior — is that not a very serious matter ? 

And, in addition, comes this : The less you have 
to do with your God and Savior, the more room, the 
more receptivity will there be in your heart for the 
things that are not of God. And then, when in the 
hour of temptation the thought comes to you: Yea, 
hath God said — ? what have you to defend yourself 
with? Then your mind is suitable soil for the words 
of the tempter, and you yourself will soon begin to 
ask, not as he asks for God for whom it is of vital 
importance to find Him, but as one who wants to 
doubt. There is no limit to the questions of doubt 
that may arise in such a soul both about God and 
His Word, about Baptism, about the Lord's Supper, 
about Heaven and Hell, and many other things. 

And, mark you, this grows on a person. It begins 
in secret. To begin with, one has kept these doubts 
quietly to oneself, perhaps as a painful secret. But 
he did not seek power from God for an honest com- 
bat, and so the doubt grew stronger and stronger, 
until he finally went so far that he in very earnest 
tried to rest contented with the thought that "it is all 



68 

nothing/' and cry out to others that God, the Bible, 
eternal salvation and damnation is altogether nothing. 

When in the hour of temptation you hear: Ye 
shall not surely die — what the Bible calls sin is not 
so dangerous, it does not bring death and damnation, 
on the contrary, pleasant to the eyes, to be desired 
to make one wise, it brings happiness and joy of life 
— ■ then I ask again : What have you to defend your- 
self with? When you have become a stranger to 
God, without that power which our Lord Jesus gives 
His followers in Word and Sacrament, what power 
have you with which to overcome in the hour of 
temptation? Your power is gone. 

Therefore I say again: For God's sake, for your 
own salvation's sake, do not stay away from the 
communion table! You forfeit too much thereby. 

4, Who Should Commune, Then t and Who 
Should Not? 

All you whose souls long to come to the Lord 
Jesus and become partakers of His grace, and who 
have a fixed resolve, though it may be weak, that 
you will fear and love God and shun sin. 

You must come to the communion table, and come 
often. 

When I have tried, to the best of my ability, to 
present the blessings of the sacrament and encour- 



64 

aged a diligent use of it, I have thought especially 
of you who feel yourselves weak. You who feel that 
you are lacking in faith and the fear of God, and 
therefore often dread coming to the Lord's Supper, 
and dread staying away, you are the ones I have 
especially wished to encourage: Come to the com- 
munion table, come often! There is blessing in it. 
For God's sake, do not stay away ! It is dangerous 
to neglect such signal grace. 



But I suppose I should not close without saying 
a few words about coming "unworthily" to the Lord's 
Supper and about the danger which it may entail. 

Those who live in sin and want to continue 
therein, — ■ 

those who do not desire that union with Jesus 
which the sacrament is intended to give, — 

those who do not want to receive the power of 
Jesus Christ to overcome sin and to live according 
to the will of God, — 

such must not commune. Because, if they do so, 
they ridicule our Lord Jesus. Then they are like him 
who betrayed the Son of man with a kiss — ap- 
proach Him outwardly as if they were his friends, 
while the heart is turned away from Him, and life 
and conduct are contrary to His will and a disgrace 
to His name. 

You ask if it is dangerous for such persons to 



65 

commune? Yes, here the old saying applies better 
than ever, that he who will not know the light shall 
burn himself thereon. 

It always injures the spiritual life to take sacred 
things in vain. And the spiritual injury which fol- 
lows such abuse of the sacrament is : 

the blunted conscience is more blunted, 
the hypocrite, becomes more secure in his hypocrisy, 
the shameless become 'more shameless, 
and their hearts are being hardened more and 
more as long as they continue to come to the Lord's 
table without repentance and faith. 

5* Postscript to Chapter IIL 

It is sad to think of what our youth has missed 
by staying away from the Lord's Supper. 

But I believe that we older Christians are largely 
to blame for this, and have many errors to correct in 
this matter. 

Our instruction about the sacrament, our text- 
books, our books of prayer, our preaching, all are to 
blame. Is it not truer 

Has not our instruction and our preaching, also 
to the young people, often been of such a nature 
that it must be said to have been better adapted for 
mature Christians and partly for old sinners and 
hard characters rather than for "large children" ? 

5- -Youth and Christianity 



66 

Must not the young people get the impression of 
what they hear and read that especially the Sacra- 
ment of the Altar is something which lies so far 
above their power of comprehension that it would be 
senseless for them to have anything to do with it? 

Has not our instruction about the Lord's Supper 
often been of such a nature that those who listened 
to us must have received the impression that the 
proper preparation for w r orthy communion demands 
so very much of us ? 

And has not the danger of being an unworthy 
guest at the Lord's Table been emphasized to such 
an extent that the danger of staying away has been 
forgotten ? 

And I have no doubt that the thought of the 
proper preparation for worthy communion and the 
danger of being an unworthy guest has kept many an 
honest soul, especially among the young people, from 
attending the Lord's Supper. 

If I only could reach them all, I would say to 
every teacher of Christianity in the schools, to every 
pastor w 7 ho is preparing a class for confirmation, 
to every leader of Christian young people's associa- 
tions, and on the whole, to every one that may have 
a chance to be of assistance to the young people in 
this matter: For God's sake, see that your instruc- 
tion and your admonitions concerning the Lord's 
Supper are plain and to the point ! 



67 

Try to enter into the spiritual life of "the large 
child'' ! And then let it be the main purpose of your 
instruction and preaching: 

To awaken a desire to come into a closer and 
more intimate union with the Savior; 

to show that the Lord's Supper is given us just 
to satisfy this need and longing, because, according 
to Christ's words, it brings us Himself; 

and to present the glory of the sacrament in such 
a way that the young people- may gladly partake of 
it and desire to come again often. 

An overwhelming majority of the throng of 
young people which is yearly admitted to the adult 
membership of our churches by confirmation and is 
admitted to the first communion, later on remains 
away from the table of the Lord. What a loss — 
to each individual, to the congregation ! 

Friends, we must not look upon this without 
using all proper means of doing what can be done 
to keep the young people in the congregation of 
communicants, and to keep the Sacrament of the 
Altar for the young people. 

I have tried to point out what I think we must 
first set to work with: to make our instruction about 
the sacrament more plain, to the point, and practical, 
more adapted to the stage of development of our 
young people. 



IV. 
Fallen and Risen* 



1* My Son Was Dead. 

a. How did it happen? Temptations many and 
of many kinds. Who can trace them all? 

We shall try to point out some of the dangers of 
youth, and shall first mention the purely physical 
development at this age. One becomes large and 
strong rapidly, and, although one can not exactly 
see daily growth, one can watch the growth by years, 
sometimes, perhaps, by months. Where the mode of 
life is wholesome and the organs are healthy, it may 
seem as though there is an excess of strength. We 
all recall, for instance, the boy of fifteen or seven- 
teen working in the harvest-field. Up at daylight, 
as the others, and keeping pace with the other work- 
men all day long. But coming home in the evening, 
he simply must run a race. No use talking about 
taking a nap after dinner, as do father, the older 
brother, or the hired man. No need of it, and no 
fun in it. No, then you are more apt to find him 



69 

at the carpenter's bench or the little saw-mill by the 
brook. There is always something to do. 

But let us not forget that there is something 
tempting in becoming big and strong so rapidly, per- 
haps bigger and stronger than father. In the first 
place, it tempts one to look down on father and to 
forget the filial respect. And when the child's na- 
tural feeling of weakness and dependence is replaced 
by a strong feeling of being "grown-up," being able 
to stand on one's own legs and take care of oneself, 
then comes the temptation to forget God, as if one 
could get along without Him, too. 

In the most intimate relation to this bodily growth 
stands the growth of the inner man, which can, 
however, not be measured in feet and inches, but is 
nevertheless just as real. We think especially of the 
self-esteem, the critical acumen, and the thirst for 
liberty, which in the age of transition often develop 
so rapidly that it quite takes aback us older folk ii 
whom the development comes more evenly and al- 
most unnoticably — that is, if we are still developing. 

It ought to be easy to understand that in itself the 
fact that there is such an inner growth in the young 
people ought to be a source of satisfaction and joy 
to . father and mother. And, indeed, it must be 
there, if the child is to become a normal adult. 

But we have reason to rejoice with fear when we 
consider how the awakening self-esteem and thirst 



70 

for liberty in the youthful mind, which according to 
nature's laws still lacks the balance which experience 
has given us older folk, tempt to emancipation from 
both divine and human laws, at the same time as the 
awakening critical acumen without revealing itself 
as a greater power of insight than that of the child 
in many spheres of life — is just as ready to dis- 
cover the mistakes and weaknesses of the older people 
as it is to make free with matters that should be 
above youthful criticism. 

Furthermore: Many a father worked and strug- 
gled to give his son a better education than he himself 
had received. Sometimes, perhaps, it was from sheer 
vanity, but often from nobler motives. Of course, 
we all know that a really worthy son will not respect 
his father and mother the less because they have by 
their work and self-sacrifice helped him to a better 
education than they themselves could acquire. Quite 
the contrary. But it should not be forgotten that there 
is something tempting for youth in the consciousness 
of knowing a great many things of which father and 
mother are wholly ignorant. That, too, tempts one 
to look down on them, to forget the fourth com- 
mandment. And I am sorry to say that there is no 
dearth of examples that only too many have been 
overcome by this temptation. 

In addition to this we have companionship, which 
is not always what it ought to be, though it may 



71 

not be what we generally call evil. Of course, it is 
a great mistake when some parents think the best 
would be to keep the young people away from all 
companionship. In most cases this is absolutely im- 
possible, and even if it were possible, it w r ould not 
be beneficial. We are placed in this world to live 
and work among our fellow men, and not to hide 
ourselves, and therefore the young people must learn 
to live their lives among men, and not only among 
old people, but also among those of the same age and 
development. 

But we must try to understand the trials and 
temptations which may come from this direction, 
also. And here we especially want to point out one 
thing, and that is the fear of being jeered by one's 
companions. 

They say, for instance: "Oh yes, we understand,, 
you're sort of under the rod, don't quite dare to be 
grown-up, don't dare to for the home-folks?" 

Many a lad of fifteen, sixteen years has lowered 
his colors before such a bombardment. The ordnance 
may have been light or heavy, according to the bring- 
ing-up and the tone of those concerned. But the real 
sting, that took effect, was generally this: ". . . not 
grown up, don't dare to." That he could not stand. 
No one must believe that he was such a "child" 
now that he had to consider the opinions of father 
and mother; and thus he fell. If it was not what we 



72 

generally call a manifest fall, he did, at least, get 
farther away from the fourth commandment, from 
father and mother, from the home. He surrenders 
his girdle of strength and the dangerous inclined 
plain is before him. 

Or : "Perhaps you have scruples — because of 
religious prejudices, out of consideration for father's 
and mother's dogmas, and the like? When you come 
right down to it, that fellow is excellent timber for 
a genuine pietist/" etc. 

Is it not true that often it does not take more 
to make one think that it simply will not do for him 
to be different from the others? He must at all 
events "make believe" that he has outgrown his 
childhood beliefs, father's and mother's fear of God, 
church-going, and the like. And it certainly is game 
to be one who dares to think what he pleases and 
talk as he pleases. 

Game? Oh yes, one tries to think so. And still 
you may be sure that more than one of these "game" 
young people felt like a cowardly wretch after think- 
ing it over alone, cowardly, because he had not dared 
to say a word to his companions in defense of their 
common childhood faith, father's and mother's faith, 
not even by silence had dared to show that he disap- 
proved of their too free and wanton speech. 

In this I have especially thought of the dangers 
to the rising generation of boys. 



73 

But certainly, many of the dangers alluded to are 
common to boys and girls, for instance, the tendency 
to consider oneself more grown-up than one really 
is, the tendency to forget the fourth commandment 
and towards emancipation from the authority of 
father and mother, weakness over against the influ- 
ence of evil companions, etc. 

If we were to mention some special danger' to 
young girls, it would, perhaps, be the temptation to 
vanity, coquetry, the desire for finery, all of which 
may fill the youthful mind with foolish and useless 
thoughts to the exclusion of every serious thought 
of one's relation to God. 

In this connection I shall only mention that the 
awakening of the sexual life at this age brings with 
it its special temptations, and for further treatment 
of the subject refer you to my book "Our Homes and 
Our Children/ 1 IX-X. 

Add to this that the age of transition awakens 
that part of our nature which is "enmity against 
God" (Rom. 8, 7). For there is something in the 
nature of all of us which dislikes God, an ill-w T ill 
towards Him, because He is holy, pure, and good, 
which we are not, and in His light our impurity is 
disclosed, our errors and omissions uncovered. 
Hence this desire to keep Him "at arm's length." In 
early childhood this ill-will towards God slumbers. 
At first it gradually awakens, until in the transitional 



74 

age it becomes a power which threatens to usurp the 
mind and thoughts and life. 

I have pointed out some of the dangers peculiar 
to youth. But here, too, I want to say that my re- 
marks are intended especially for us older people, 
especially for father and mother. For if we thor- 
oughly understand the special dangers of youth, we 
shall be far more successful in giving them the help 
they need. 

At the same time, however, I wish to direct an ear- 
nest and well meant warning to you, young people. 
I do not want any one to use what I have said as an 
excuse. Let no one say: "I must cut loose, it belongs 
to youth, and I can't help it." 

You must not cut loose and trample upon the 
commandment of God, neither the fourth nor any 
other commandment. For you will injure your soul 
if you do. And then, what would it profit you, if 
you gained the whole world? It is by "cutting 
loose" in that way that so many promising young 
people have wasted the joy of youth, their good con- 
science, their peace of mind, their happiness, their 
lives. And still they were at one time just as buoy- 
ant, brave, and cheerful as you are now. 

No, make use of the power which God gives you 
to strive against every temptation to depart from the 
path of righteousness of God's commandments. Be 
not cowardly enough to shirk this struggle ! Strive 



75 

honestly, and you will by the help of God triumph 
over all evil tendencies ! For God gives the sincere 
success. 

And then I want to say to you, young people, 
that every one of us older people who realizes what 
is at stake, thinks of you with genuine sympathy. 
Do not think that your elders do not understand you 
and do not even care to understand you! You may 
be sure that in a great many instances you are more 
thoroughly understood, both by father and mother 
and many others, than you even imagine. Of course, 
there are altogether too many who lack the proper 
understanding and sympathy. And, indeed, there 
are many enough who, even though they have con- 
siderable understanding and sympathy, for some 
reason or other have been unable to give their chil- 
dren the help they needed to pass safely through the 
critical period under discussion, and therefore feel 
as debtors on this score — and who is entirely with- 
out that feeling? 

But remember, my dear young friends, there is 
one thing that even the weakest among us will do, 
provided he knows how to pray to God — we do 
pray for you, pray God that He will give to each one 
of you the light and power that you need in your 
difficult position. 

One of these praying fathers has told me the fol- 
lowing: He had certainly tried to do his best for the 



76 

children, but he never could feel satisfied that he had 
done as well as he should have done in all things. 
But as the children grew older, he felt it more and 
more a duty to pray for them. His prayer was 
not very long and not very remarkable. "O Lord, 
pour Thy Spirit upon them, grant them power of 
victory in the hour of temptation, give light in their 
hearts and light upon their way! Teach them to 
know the need of salvation by grace and to see the 
glory of Jesus Christ, and draw them nearer to 
Thee, my God, my Savior! Amen." 

Thus he prayed upon his bed at night, year after 
year. And he repeated the same prayer for all of 
the children in turn, mentioning them by name, and 
adding an Amen for each one. 

And if I could reach some father or mother with 
these words, I would say: My dear friends, let us 
do likewise ! Think not : "It is of no avail !" Let 
us never forget that there is One who hath said: 
"Ask, and it shall be given you!" And He is cer- 
tainly able to keep His promises. For His is all 
power in heaven and on earth. 

It certainly is true that a great many young peo- 
ple have been sustained and have been carried safely 
over the abyss where others fell, and that many 
fallen ones have been helped to rise again by such 
intercessory prayers. I can not tell you how it comes 
about. But let us find consolation in the thought that 



77 

neither the Lord nor His apostles have made it a 
condition for the hearing of prayers that we should 
understand that which is incomprehensible. Let us 
be satisfied to cling in faith to the promises of the 
Lord, as the child confidently accepts father's word 
and promise. 

In the foregoing we have pointed out some of the 
dangers that threaten to destroy our young people, 
i. e., threaten to stifle the beginnings of spiritual life 
which God in their infancy implanted in them by 
baptism. And we can not overlook the fact that to 
many these dangers became so great that they could 
not endure. 

And too many there are who in this transitional 
age have lost their most precious possessions in life. 
Just as a couple of frosty nights in August may in- 
jure the green corn and bring to naught the farmer's 
best expectations, or as the rank weeds may smother 
the good seed until it is entirely overcome — so it 
often happens here. 

There were some who with determination deli- 
berately turned away from their childhood's God, 
thinking that they could not enjoy life or find true 
happiness until they had torn asunder the bonds and 
broken down the barriers by which their childhood 
home had tried to protect them. 

Therefore the fourth commandment was generally 
the one that must be trampled upon first, in order 



78 

that one might feel really "grown-up and free/' and 
then one after the other of the commandments was 
set aside. 

And there were others who gradually fell away 
from God, until they more or less reluctantly gave 
up their faith and lost their peace, and finally tried to 
rest content with a life without prayer, without God. 

Then followed, in both instances, a life with 
selfishness as its great motive force. But selfishness 
is ever a merciless master. And there is no limit to 
the way it can harry and devastate a person's life. 

b. Is it not dangerous? No one must suppose 
that it is not dangerous to live away from God in 
youth if one only returns to Him later. The youth 
must not think so, father and mother must not 
think so. 

For just as surely as there is forgiveness of sins, 
salvation and healing in Christ for every sinner who 
turns to Him, however far and however long he may 
have been astray, just as surely must every one who 
has lived in sin carry many and varied marks and 
scars. 

In the first place, there are the memories, those 
sad and bitter memories that return again and again. 
In the course of time you may forget many things 
that you would like to remember. But the memory 
of this or that sin that you are so very anxious to 
forget returns again and again. Pray for forgiveness, 



79 

receive forgiveness, believe forgiveness, you may by 
the grace of God. Still you would give your heart's 
blood if you could render undone that which is done, 
but all in vain. The memory remains. That you 
must keep, even after you become a converted and 
believing Christian. 

Furthermore: Where a life was led in sin and 
shame, for instance, drunkenness and licentiousness, 
the resulting injury to the health may be very per- 
ceptible during after-life, even though the person 
may have risen in Christ. 

And then the injury which comes to the soul 
from having lived without God! 

Here we think of something which is much worse 
than that the time spent without God is wasted time 
and that a life in sin brings in its trail bitter memo- 
ries for the subsequent Christian life, and in many 
cases broken health. That is certainly all very sad. 
And yet it is much worse that the most delicate 
organs of the soul may be injured and that we never 
can become what we otherwise might have become 
under God's gracious guidance. A wound that is 
healed generally leaves a scar. And as an otherwise 
beautiful face may be disfigured by scars after the 
wounds are healed, so may the Christian soul which 
for a time has been harried by the spirit of unbelief 
or selfishness bear such marks that the image of God 
can not develop as clearly as it might have done if 



so 

the union with God had continued uninterruptedly. 
Thus one who has been a worshipper of Mammon 
may even after having been converted to God be 
more tempted to avarice and stinginess than others. 
One who has been ruled by selfishness for a time, 
will find it so much harder to learn obedience to God 
and in the days of adversity to say from the heart : 
Not my will, but Thy will be done, O Lord ! 

And take it all in all : As the vision of one who 
for a time lives in constant darkness is injured, so a 
human soul may by excluding itself from the light of 
God injure its power to receive this light. If we 
have lived for a time in unbelief, and our hearts 
have been closed to God's love, our power to believe 
and love has been injured, or our receptivity is weak- 
ened, so that we shall, as believing Christians, hardly 
be able to receive as full a measure of grace, light, 
and power from God as He would give us and as 
we could receive if that weakening had not taken 
place. 

Do we hereby belittle the redemption of Christ? 
Indeed, not. But we emphasize the fact that it is 
absurd to say that it does not matter that one lives 
without God in youth, if one only returns later. 



81 



2, Behold, He Liveth! 

a. Awakening, conversion. The change taking 
place in a soul which, after having departed from 
God, again, by the grace of God, returns to Him, 
Jesus Himself has described to us in the parable of 
the prodigal son. 

1. The prodigal acknowledged that he had erred 
— "he came to himself." 

2. He felt that he was miserable and helpless — 
"I perish with hunger." 

3. He said: "I will arise and go to my father," 
and he arose and came to his father. 

Here a change takes place both in acknowledge- 
ment, will, and emotion, and a change such as we 
see here, is conversion. 

Mere acknowledgment of error it not conversion. 
Even though we feel quite depressed, it is still not 
conversion. Such a change in acknowledgment and 
feeling may be called an awakening, though it is a 
rather superficial awakening — and a superficial ac- 
knowledgment of sin, if my greatest sorrow is that 
I have brought misfortune and misery upon myself. 
The more serious the awakening is, the more will our 
great sorrow be that we have offended God, offended 
His holiness and righteousness, disdained His love 
and dishonored His name — the more will this con- 
fession become our confession : "A gainst Thee, Thee 

6 — Youth and Christianit}'- 



82 

only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight. 
— Father, I have sinned against heaven and in Thy 
sight, and am no more worthy to be called Thy son." 

There is no thorough conversion until the Spirit 
of God creates a will in our hearts which says : : "P 
will arise and go to my Father." 

There is no real conversion unless one in faith 
takes refuge with the Father in the name of Jesus, 
and with our Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior. 

We are considering the parable of the prodigal 
son. This, as well as the two parables immediately 
preceding it (of the lost sheep and the lost penny), 
is specially intended as a reprimand to the Pharisees : 
for the uncharitable judgment which they passed upon 
Jesus and His relation to the publicans and sinners: 
And therefore He shows them that when it is to their 
own interest, they do the very things for which they 
censure Him. But at the same time the parable con- 
tains much more, as is clearly shown by the addition 
to the first two: "Likewise, I say unto you, there is 
joy in the presence of the angels of God (in heaven) 
over one sinner that repenteth." And therefore I 
have no doubt that in this story of the prodigal son 
we have a right to see a representation of what takes 
place in the hearts of those who depart from God to 
live according to their own desires, away from God, 
but later come to themselves and return to the God 
they deserted — as well as a representation of our 



83 

heavenly Father's disposition toward these erring 
children who return in repentance and prayer. And 
thus believing Bible readers have understood this par- 
able at all times and unto this day, and therefore it 
has brought comfort and peace to innumerable sad 
and anxious souls. 

We must not, however, on this point suppose that 
the Savior intended to tell us in the one speech all 
that He might have to tell of awakening and conver- 
sion. And we must not use this parable in support 
of the opinion that the awakening and conversion 
must be just exactly alike in all cases. 

The essential thing, that which is common to all 
who really have been converted to a life in God, 
is that they came to themselves and that they arose 
and went to their Father. 

Otherwise they may have differed in many re- 
spects. 

One has wallowed in sin and shame, w T asted his 
substance in riotous living, as did the prodigal son. 
Another has lived an outwardly decent and honorable 
life, but has nevertheless been far away from God, 
because selfishness, self-righteousness, arrogance, am- 
bition, avarice, unkindness, anger, severity, bitterness, 
contempt for God, and other sins of the heart have 
entirely controlled him. In both these cases the first 
awakening is often characterized by strong emotions : 
remorse, terror, dismay. 



84 

And then there are others, to whom these words 
of Jesus apply : "Thou art not far from the kingdom 
of God." With this class the first strong influence 
whereby God draws the soul from death to life is not 
especially directed towards the emotions. It may 
act through the acknowledgment, so that one seeks 
refuge with Jesus, because, by the enlightenment of 
God's Word and Spirit, one understands that it is 
impossible to do without Him. Therefore he accepts 
Jesus as his personal Savior, prays to Him, follows 
Him. But such a person has come to God, is a 
converted and believing Christian. Or, the strong 
and determining influence of God may be directed 
towards the will, which is inclined and drawn to 
God, for instance, by some great boon, which causes 
one to tremble at the presence of God, to tremble 
with thanksgiving and worship, so that one gives his 
heart to God for life. This person also became a 
disciple of Jesus. 

Both of these persons felt grieved at their sins, 
but this feeling was not the strongest emotion in their 
souls when they came to Jesus and surrendered to 
Him. The strong emotions may come later in life, 
during the walk with the Savior, or they may fail to 
appear. 

Differences in this respect may be due to a differ- 
ence in disposition, a difference in bringing-up, a dif- 
ference in career, etc. 



85 

b. Faith in Jesus Christ. What is faith in Jesus ? 
How do I believe in Him? I long for Him, in order 
to find peace and salvation. If I have been away 
from God before, I "arise and go to Him" and pray : 
God, be merciful to me, a sinner! Forgive my sins 
for Jesus' sake ! Jesus, Savior, let me be Thine ! 

This is the beginning of faith in one who has 
been astray, a yearning faith. And of the publican 
in the temple, who approached God in this manner, 
Jesus Himself says these words (Luke 18, 14) : "This 
man went down to his house justified/' that is, his 
sins were forgiven. 

And let us mark this well : Such a yearning faith, 
in which the soul seeks refuge in the grace of God 
in Christ, is a justifying, saving faith. This Christ 
Himself has told us in the story of the publican. 

If you come with the heart and the sigh of the 
publican, the words of Christ will certainly apply to 
you when He says: This man went away justified — 
from such a meeting with God. 

Mark you : the heart of the publican and the sigh 
of the publican! Then you do not ask to be saved 
only from the guilt and punishment of your sin — 
in order to sin anew thereafter, but with all your soul 
you seek to be saved from sin itself. First it is nec- 
essary that you be awakened to a true knowledge of 
your sin and to feel your need of the saving grace. 
But faith proper is that you take refuge with God 



86 

and pray for grace. Or, faith is this : "I will arise 
and go to my Father," hence, in very truth, a matter 
of the will. 

And at the same time, faith is a gift of God, 
Every one of us, who really has come to Jesus, 
will say with all his heart: Unto Thee, my Savior, 
unto Thee be all the glory! My natural desire was 
to depart from Thee; but Thou restrainedst me, and 
by Thy Spirit Thou gavest me a new will, so that 
now I want to come to Thee and abide in Thee. 

But no one needs to remain standing at a distance, 
saying: I can not come, I can not believe. God's call 
goes forth to all of us in the Word, and His Spirit 
is in the call, in the Word, to work faith in our 
hearts. 



V. 
Weak Faith, Increase of Faith* 



My faith may be weak. The assurance, of which 
there must ever be a little even in the weakest faith 
— for, without it, no one would "arise and go to his 
Father'' — the assurance that God will forgive me my 
sin and own me as His child may be very small, and 
then I have only very little peace, little joy, and little 
strength. But if I arise and go to my Father, or, in 
other words, if my prayer for the forgiveness of sins 
and for strength to live according to God's will is 
sincere, I have faith. 

To those who reject this view and call it being 
under the law and under condemnation, I think we 
may say, calling attention to the two parables of the 
prodigal and the publican in the temple : Christ has 
not rejected it. 

Some Christians remain in this yearning faith for 
a shorter, others for a longer time, and not a few, no 
doubt, all their lives. There are some who think that 
it ought to be thus. If we confess with the apostle 
John, "now are we the sons of God" (1 John 3, 2), 



88 

they may think that we are entirely too "strong in 
faith" and are in a sad plight. 

But just as surely as you become a pardoned child 
of God, having forgiveness for all your sins, the 
same moment that you "arose and went to your 
Father," breathing the prayer of the publican: "God, 
be merciful unto me, a sinner!" — however weak 
your faith may have been — just as surely it is the 
will of God to increase your faith. And therefore 
it is that we pray: "Lord, increase our faith!" 

And if God has increased my faith, how do I then 
believe on Jesus? 

I believe in such a way that I can say with a con- 
fident heart, more confidently now than at first: I 
believe that Jesus Christ has redeemed me — with 
His holy and precious blood and with His innocent 
suffering and death. I believe that for His sake I 
have forgiveness and that daily I receive the full 
forgiveness of all my sins. I believe that God is 
my Father and that I am His child, that Jesus is my 
Savior, and that I am His own, and that God the 
Holy Spirit is and ever will be my Comforter in life 
and in death, so that I need never be led into un- 
belief, despair, or other shameful sins and vices. 

How did I attain to such faith ? 

It is the work of the Holy Spirit, who has en- 
lightened me with His gifts. It is all the work of 
the Holy Spirit, both the first weak beginning of the 



89 

yearning faith and the increase of faith which has 
since taken place. 

But any one who desires an increase in faith must 
make use of the means of grace, through which the 
Spirit works. 

We often hear this complaint: I do so wish that 
my faith might increase, that I might believe more 
hopefully and confidently, and experience the joy of 
assurance. But I do not succeed. 

Let me ask you then : What is it you are so 
anxious to believe? 

Well, I am sure you are anxious to believe that 
you are a believer. There are many who secretly 
want to believe on their own faith — instead of on 
Jesus. But then they do not find such a faith as they 
had desired to find in their hearts, and therefore 
they are — anxious. Or — which amounts to the 
same thing — you would like to believe that you are 
really converted, justified, and born anew. You prob- 
ably think that if you could but believe that first, 
your faith would soon be strong and all would be 
well. 

Alas, I know a little about how a soul may go 
for years in this way, and "spend its money for that 
which is not bread and its labor for that which satis- 
fied not." Some of these may be near the Kingdom 
of Heaven and still, perhaps, never enter therein. 
Others may be in the Kingdom of God, but still have 



90 

only little peace and little strength, their faith is weak 
and wavering, because they lack that "full assurance 
of faith" of which the Epistle to the Hebrews speaks 
(Hebr. 10, 22), they lack the increase of faith to 
which God is so desirous of helping them. 

If this is your condition, if you long for peace, 
if you would like to believe, but do not seem to suc- 
ceed, then let me give you a bit of advice. I know 
it is good advice, for it is according to the Word of 
•God and has been tested by the experience of many. 
Here it is : "Look at the Lamb of God, which taketh 
away the sin of the world T Look at this, that Jesus 
Christ has paid for your sins with His blood, and 
ask yourself if you believe that this is sufficient. 

For the time being, let all those things that you 
think are so uncertain rest : whether you have the 
true faith, whether you are truly converted and born 
again, whether you really are a child of God or not. 
Let all those questions remain unanswered, for the 
time being, and sink your whole soul in this truth, 
which is so sure and secure that even the devil is 
unable to break it : The blood of Jesus Christ, the 
Son of God, is shed to the last drop as a ransom for 
you; He has redeemed you, a lost and condemned 
creature; He has purchased you and honestly paid 
for you, in order that you may be His own. 

Look thus at the Lamb of God, and it shall come 
to pass that by that look your soul will be filled with 



91 

praise and thanksgiving, so that you will be able to 
say: God be praised! Then He has borne my sins, 
purchased for me the grace and good will of God 
the Father, and I am His own, because He has pur- 
chased me. 

But then the Holy Spirit has worked the full as- 
surance of faith in your soul by the gospel of salva- 
tion in the blood of Christ. And this same gospel 
you must ever again have recourse to, in order that 
your faith and peace may be renewed and increased 
and that your power may grow. 

And if we had a better understanding than we 
generally have of the value and significance of Bap- 
tism, our assurance of the adoption as children 
would be greater and our faith stronger. 

When our assurance of faith is small and meager, 
let us say to ourselves : This applies to me, this truly 
applies to me, all that Jesus has purchased by His 
work of redemption. For in Baptism I was, with the 
mention of my name, assured of this by God Him- 
self. Just as every child's share of the inheritance 
belongs to the individual child when the administra- 
tor has apportioned the estate of the deceased parents 
and put every child's share in the bank in the child's 
name, so the benefits of Christ's redemption were 
transferred to me when I was baptized. 

And furthermore: If we were more frequent and 
better guests at the Lord's Table than we are, we 



92 

should also have more assurance of faith and more 
strength. 

The assurance of faith which is thus worked by 
the Spirit of God through the Gospel, the correct 
view of our Baptism, and the proper use of the 
Lord's Supper, is what we must especially have in 
mind when reading Hebr. 10, 22 and Rom. 8, 16, and 
when speaking of that increase in faith during which 
the first weak, yearning faith develops into a more 
cheerful and hopeful faith with more peace and 
more strength. 

That the Spirit may also work and testify more 
directly, no one of us will deny. But God has di- 
rected us to a faithful use of His Word and Sacra- 
ment, by which He ordinarily works and edifies the 
life of faith and love in us. Therefore we must not 
expect to feel a joyous assurance of being a child of 
God, before we dare to take God at His word when 
He assures us of the forgiveness of sins and the 
adoption of children in the Gospel, in Baptism, in the 
Lord's Supper. 

But then no one must suppose that he is done 
when he can appropriate to himself the comfort of 
forgiveness and taste some of the joy and peace 
which follows. Far from it! 

Now the Holy Spirit wants to continue the work 
of increasing your acknowledgment both of sin and 
of grace. Now you are to learn to know much 



93 

better than at first your sin and your daily need of 
new grace as well as the love of your heavenly 
Father, the faithfulness of your Savior, and the 
depth of the riches of grace, which He has to give to 
poor sinners who come to Him. And He, who first 
worked in you the desire to come to Him and abide 
with Him, will continue to incite and urge, draw and 
call your soul, so that you will ever anew turn away 
from sin and return to God, will arise and come to 
your Father and your Savior, and thus abide in Him. 

And mark well that our abiding in Him is that 
we ever anew come to Him to receive new and more 
beautiful grace and ever to become more intimately 
united with Him. There is no abiding in Him with- 
out such constant coming to Him. 

And so even here, during our increase in faith, 
it is in reality the will it depends on, that God gets a 
stronger and stronger hold on our will. If that takes 
place, God will cause you to grow unto a perfect man 
in Christ. Then the weak yearning faith develops 
into the consoling, confident, and cheerful faith with 
more peace and greater strength — strength to van- 
quish and root out besetting sins, strength to suffer 
without murmuring when so it is God's will, strength 
to make sacrifices for God, strength to do the will 
of God. 

And this is one of the special characteristics of 
all true faith that grows in a God-pleasing way, it 



94 

does not take long before we feel a need of doing 
something for God. We do not only want to enjoy 
our blessings, but we want to be a blessing. 

And if you grow in a God-pleasing way, you will 
find more and more that you do not only want to do 
some good work or other to please God, but you will 
want to live your lives for God, you will perform 
every duty which is incumbent upon you, even the 
least of them, in obedience and fidelity to Him, 
not as msan-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ. 
(Eph. 6, 6.) 

And then you have this inestimable gain — light 
from above falls upon your lives, so that you can 
look upon all your work as done in the service 
of God. 

And every believing Christian who performs the 
work of his earthly calling in this spirit is not only 
himself blessed with light from above upon his work, 
but he is at the same time fortunate enough to be 
himself a small light which shines in his circle, upon 
his surroundings. 

By your quiet conversation in the true fear of 
God, you may, even without words, testify about 
your Savior in such a way that many may thereby 
be drawn to Him. 

That faith, which is more than the first begin- 
ning, will, as before stated, do something for God, 
not only receive, but also give. And remembering 



95 

the words of our Savior: "Inasmuch as ye have 
done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, 
ye have done it unto me" (Matt. 25, 40), you will 
be anxious to help those who are in special need of 
your help. You will be anxious to wipe away tears, 
ease pain, comfort, gladden, and bless as far as you 
are able. 

And the words of Jesus: "As I have loved, shall 
ye also love, 7 ' will be to you not a heavy yoke that 
you can not bear, but it will be a truly beautiful 
word, which tells you what the power of the redemp- 
tion of Christ will help those to who believe on Him. 

During this development you receive more and 
more of the spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ, 
and your conduct becomes more and more like His 
life and conduct here on earth, His who could say: 
"My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me." 

And during this development shall be fulfilled 
upon you these words of our Savior: "He that 
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth 
much fruit" (John 15, 5), and: "Herein is my Father 
glorified, that ye bear much fruit" (John 15, 8). 

With these remarks I have wanted to point out 
the growth and development of your faith, to which 
God will help you if you are but willing to be taught 
and to be faithful pupils in His school of grace. But 
obedience and willingness to learn is necessary, and, 
first and last, fidelity. 



96 

Therefore strive to be faithful, my dear friends! 
Be faithful in watching and praying! Be faithful in 
the use of God's Word and the Lord's Supper! Be 
faithful in all your life and ever use the power 
you have received to root out besetting sins and to 
do the will of God ! And then, God bless you ! Let 
us pray: 

"0 Jesus, Thou my Savior faithful, true, 
To death and grave Thy boundless love Thee drew. 
Grant me Thy pow'r that to my grave's dark mold 
I faithful, true may be, and pure as gold V Amen. 



VI. 
Godliness Is Great Gain* 



This was the opinion of Paul the apostle (1 Tim. 
6, 6), and I am heartily persuaded that he was right. 
And if I could help to bring you to the same per- 
suasion, I should be well pleased. 

You will surely meet those who are of a different 
opinion. You will meet those who say that the godly 
are either deceivers or deceived. And you will meet 
some who admit that godliness is a good thing, but 
who still crush the tender sprouts in the vineyard of 
the Lord under their iron heels — out of absolute 
lack of judgment. To begin with, a few remarks 
about the first and the last mentioned. 

1* Deceivers* 

"Awakened, godly-minded! They are certainly 
no better than the rest of us. They are unreliable in 
money matters, borrow without paying, some squeeze 
the pennies and are niggardly, some are prodigal 
squanderers, who let others give security and — pay. 

7 — Youth and Christianity 



98 

They are tyrannical in their homes towards children 
and servants, live in constant domestic quarrels, are 
fault-finding, like to think and speak evil of all who 
have an opinion different from their own, yes, some 
of them can not even be trusted in their relation to 
the sixth commandment." 

Such expressions are often heard about those who 
have, in some way or another, declared themselves to 
be , on the side of the Lord Christ. Whether it is 
whispered in the corners or shouted from the plat- 
form or spread broadcast in the papers, it is equally 
sad, if true. 

And, sad to say, there is sometimes more truth 
in such talk than there ought to be. But if any one 
wants to make you believe that all awakened and 
godly-minded people are deceivers, do not let your- 
self be disturbed by the cry. It would be foolish to 
destroy all currency because a counterfeit bill may 
have been discovered now and then. And we do not 
reject all the apostles because there was a Judas 
among them. 

No one would try to issue counterfeit money if 
there were no genuine money. Neither would there 
be any false Christians if there were no genuine, true 
Christians in the world. 

But as the wwds of the Savior: "One of you 
shall betray me," caused the apostles anxiously to 
ask: "Lord, is it I?" so the thought of false Chris- 



99 

tians should urge us to sincere self-examination and 
N with trembling to pray with the psalmist of old: 
"Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me, 
and know my thoughts; and see if there be any 
wicked way in me, and lead me in the way ever- 
lasting!" the way that leads to eternal life! (Ps. 139, 
23. 24.) 

2* Deceived* 

"If you want to become a pietist, you will be a 
useless person all your life. Beware of that!" 

"The awakened waste so much time in reading 
and praying, going to prayer-meetings, etc., that they 
neglect their work. Take care that you do not be- 
come like them!" 

We know that sort of warning, do we not? 

"You used to be such a happy and jolly girl, and 
then I liked you. But now you are such a goody- 
goody, that I can not stand you." 

Thus wrote a young dandy to his sweetheart in 
breaking the engagement because she had become 
converted. 

The meaning of these and similar expressions is 
clearly this : If the awakened are not deceivers, they 
are at all events deceived. Those among them who 
are in good faith and really sincere in their god- 
liness and prayers are as a rule intellectually limited 



100 

persons who are easily deceived and do not them- 
selves know how foolish they are. 

Well, I would never think of denying that there 
are intellectually limited persons among the Chris- 
tians, people who are not very gifted. But the same 
holds good among the non-Christians. They are not 
all geniuses, either. 

"Shall I congratulate or condole? I hear that 
your daughter has commenced to accompany her 
religious cousin to these revival meetings, or what- 
ever they may be called. " 

These words were addressed to an elderly man, 
whom no one would think of classing among the 
awakened. His scoffing friend expected to hear an 
outburst of indignation at the small religious excite- 
ment in the place, something about eccentricity, hum- 
bug, or the like. 

But the other answered very quietly: "I believe 
these young people are wiser than either you or I. 
We old fools might learn something from them/' 

3* First Creep, Then Walk* 

What father would meet his infant child with a kick 
and say, scolding: "Shame on you, child, you crawl 
like a toad ! Walk like a man, I say, or lie still !" 

It seems to me, that when a critic attacks the 
excesses, which, so to speak, of physical necessity 



101 

seem to accompany every serious religious awaken- 
ing, as though the movement itself were more dan- 
gerous than death, he is like that father. 

"They have commenced with something they call 
prayer-meetings over in the neighborhood of N. N. 
Simple and unlearned — might well say, ignorant — 
men and women pray, one after the other, and they 
all kneel during the prayers. That must be Metho- 
distic? Or Catholic? That might be dangerous, if it 
should spread. It will be necessary to put a damper 
on it betimes/' etc. , 

We know that talk, too. And laity, and clergy 
too, sometimes, just as zealous and just as lacking 
in understanding, are agreed that now it is necessary 
to guard churchliness and Lutheranism. And so they 
commence, sometimes right in church, with severe 
lectures against the "sectarianism" of the awakened, 
and warn against them. 

O, could I but hope to reach them, how I should 
like to give all these "anxious" people this advice: 
"Try to acquire so broad a view of these religious 
movements in general, and those in your own neigh- 
borhood in particular, that, remembering the old say- 
ing: first creep, then walk, you do not begin by at- 
tacking the awakened with upbraidings for being 
Methodistic or sectarian, even though you might see 
things that would be more displeasing to you than 
that they assemble for prayer-meetings and that they 



102 

kneel during the prayers, yes, even if marked ex- 
cesses and weaknesses should appear, as often hap- 
pens in the earlier stages of a Christian life, espe- 
cially when it begins with a serious awakening. 

Say rather: Thank God, there are signs of life! 
However incomplete and weak it may be, it certainly 
is better than death. 

Enter into the movement yourself with under- 
standing and sympathy, as those who sincerely re- 
joice at every sign of life and every beginning of 
life! Then make use of the respect and confidence 
you undoubtedly will gain, to lead the movement with 
tender hands into the proper channels. 



After these digressions, let us try to enter upon 
— at least approach more closely to — our subject: 
Godliness, great gain. 

In the words quoted, the apostle has given ex- 
pression to a truth that is just as valid to-day as it 
was centuries ago. And his words will for all time 
contain a message to Christian people. To me these 
words have spoken not only of the gain, but also of 
the responsibility in being a Christian. We shall 
briefly consider these two things. 



103 



4* Responsibility* 

Is there any responsibility in being a Christian? 
Yes, there is. 

There is a terrible accusation against the people 
of God in the well-known words : "The name of God 
is blasphemed among the gentiles through you" 
(Rom. 2, 24). 

But this occurs unto this day, when godless 
people from Christian nations settle in heathen lands. 

The lives of such colonists have, sad to say, 
often been perfectly heathenish, and they have used 
their superior skill and knowledge to take advantage 
of and to abuse the savage or semi-savage tribes 
among which they dwelt, and to enrich tHemselves 
at their expense. Gruesome things does history 
relate thereof. Here is one incident of many: 

"Be baptized, that you may go to heaven," said 
a Spanish monk to a dying heathen. 

"Do white men go there?" he asked. 

"Yes, certainly," replied the monk. 

"Then I don't want to go there. I don't want to 
go to a place where I shall meet such cruel people," 
said the heathen — and died. 

The name of God is blasphemed among the gen- 
tiles through you. This still occurs right in our 
midst, when any one of us who has confessed him- 
self a Christian falls into flagrant sin and vice. 



104 

Then it is said: There we see godliness, Chris- 
tianity; it amounts to nothing; when it comes to a 
test, the Christians are no better than other people; 
their godliness has not been able to sustain them. 
And that is in reality the same as to say that the 
God, to whom they pray, has been unable to preserve 
them. Thus is the name of God blasphemed by the 
sins of the "God-fearing." 

And then the ungodly find a welcome pretext 
with which to excuse their sins, and to the sincere 
come grief and misgiving. 

But even Christians who lead what we call a 
blameless life may be included in this sentence: The 
name of God is blasphemed through you. This is the 
case when God-fearing people lead a slack and easy- 
going Christian life, are content with a minimum of 
sanctification, do not use all diligence to add to their 
faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowl- 
edge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to 
patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kind- 
ness, and to brotherly kindness charity. (2 Pet. 
1, 5-7.) 

The result of negligence here will be one of two 
things : Either that the inner life, the life of faith 
and love in God, will be impoverished, become poor 
in comfort and peace, joy and power, but rich in 
despair, sighs, and wailing, poor in holy Christian 
courage, activity, and enterprise in the work for the 



105 

progress of the Kingdom of God on earth, poor in 
the light that should make the Christian a sunbeam 
in the darkness of this world — in everything weaker 
than one need be, even though there may still be 
some of the life in God. From such Christians our 
God and Savior does not receive the honor which He 
might have had if there had been more diligence. 

Or the result of negligence will be that one little 
by little entirely forsakes the life in God, which once 
was awakened in the soul, and retains only empty 
forms and phrases ; one "says a prayer," but does not 
pray; reads and hears the Word of God; toils with 
Christian activities, but all as a work of duty or 
habit; speaks of sin and grace, of righteousness and 
judgment; judges others, but does not judge oneself — 
if one does not give up even the forms and phrases, 
not caring a straw for all of it, and persuading one- 
self that this about faith and godliness was all vi- 
sionary and imaginary. 

So in either case this sentence applies : The name 
of God is blasphemed through you — even though 
there have been no so-called manifest fall. 

The poet of old had every reason to say: "Many 
eternally captive lie, who once were on the way/' 

God preserve you, my young friends ! And God 
preserve every sincere Christian soul! 

But do not lose courage ! God will preserve you 
if you will but stand on guard and fight honestly 



106 

against every temptation to depart from the plain 
way of God's commandments. 

God will preserve you, and God's name will not 
be blasphemed through you, and you will not be an 
offense in the world. On the contrary, that your 
good works may so shine before men that they may 
by them be made to glorify God in the day of visita- 
tion (1 Pet. 2, 12), is the beautiful task that you 
have as the disciples of Jesus. And to accomplish 
that, God will help you if you will only remain inti- 
mately near to Him. 

5* Gain* 

Is there anything to gain by being a Christian? 
Yes, "godliness hath promise of the life that now is 
and of that which is to come" (1 Tim. 4, 8). But 
come and see ! It is best to see for oneself. 

a. A Sunday evening. A tenant's cottage nestles 
under the hillside. There live pious people, "read : 
ers," or awakened, they are generally called in the 
parish. Let us enter, preferably unseen; we want ta 
see without being seen. 

It is Sunday evening. The family has just sat 
down to the supper table, father and mother with a 
couple of children between four and seven. The 
older children have already left home to earn a liveli- 
hood among strangers. 



107 

Porridge and milk, and nothing more. Perhaps 
you consider that frugal fare for Sunday? But see 
how healthy and happy the children look, and how 
satisfied and thankful the parents are! 

Now they all fold their hands. "In Jesus' name 
come we to meat/' says one of the little ones, and 
father adds: "Lord God, heavenly Father, bless our 
food for Jesus' sake! Amen." 

And then they eat with such a blessed appetite, 
all four, that the millionaire Rockefeller might have 
turned green with envy, had he seen them. 

"God be praised eternally, that we are fed abun- 
dantly," says the smallest one, repeating every sen- 
tence after mother, and father closes : "Lord God, 
heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the food in the 
name of Jesus! Amen." 

After the little ones have been tucked into bed, 
they sit a while longer, the two. 

We surely have a good landlord, Grethe, says 
Hans. 

Yes, that is certainly true, replies the wife. When 
I think of all our landlord and his kind wife have done 
for us and our children, it seems almost too much. 

And still you don't know all, says Hans. Now 
you shall hear what he said to me today as we hap- 
pened to walk together from church. 

I have thought so much of Peter, your son, lately, 
I might say night and day, he said. 



108 

I felt uneasy, and thought perhaps Peter had 
gotten into some trouble. But then he continued: 

He has now been in my employ for five years, 
first as driver, and these later years as man of all 
work, and I will say this, that a more trustworthy 
man I have never had. And still, now I believe that 
I shall try to get rid of him. 

What does Landlord mean by that? I asked, and 
I think he noticed that I was pretty anxious. 

O, I don't mean anything bad, anyway, he said. 
Only this, that it might be a good thing for Peter, 
if he could have a course at the agricultural school. 

I suppose it costs money to go to school, I said. 
Is that anything for a poor tenant-boy to think of? 

Yes, he said, but then I have thought this, too, 
that if Peter wants to go to this school, and if you 
and your wife have no objections, I want to back 
him up with what little Mammon he will need during 
the school days. 

I am ashamed to say, Grethe, that when I tried 
to say something in reply, it seemed as though a 
lump came into my throat all at once, and it was all 
I could do to utter these words : Landlord is en- 
tirely too kind. 

O, don't say that, he said, for when Peter has 
finished school, of course, I want him to come back 
to the farm to see what he amounts to, and then he 
won't get away before I have gotten my money back 



109 

with interest, and more, too, he laughed. That will 
be at least seven years of service without board and 
pay, or how was that about that old patriarch? 

Let the patriarch rest in peace, Landlord! I said. 

It sort of hurt me, that jesting allusion to the 
patriarch Jacob. For to me it has been such a great 
thing in the heaviest hours of my life to be able to 
say after him these words: "Lord, I will not let 
Thee go, except Thou bless me," that whenever I 
I am reminded of Jacob I see him especially as he 
was at the ford of Jabbok, as the one who wrestled 
with God and was blessed because he was humbled. 

Therefore I couldn't do anything else, I said : 
Let the patriarch rest in peace, Landlord! I think 
he understood what I meant, and he hastened to add : 
Well, I am sure I didn't mean any harm by it, my 
dear Hans. You see, the thing is that when I think 
of your bright and strong boy and that after a fin- 
ished course at the agricultural school we shall get 
him back twice as able as he is now, it makes me so 
wonderfully good-humored that it is easy to say 
something in a jest without really thinking it over. 

Think of it, Hans, that he made the offer entirely 
of himself, that he wanted to help Peter to the agri- 
cultural school ! Isn't our landlord kind, though, — 
and isn't God good! 

Yes, indeed, Grethe dear. But listen, still you 
don't know all. 



110 

Thank God for a harmless jest! continued the 
landlord. I remember well the time when that was 
an unknown thing to me — the winter when diph- 
theria took both my sturdy boys and it looked for a 
long time as though I should lose mother, too. But 
enough of that. Later God taught me to thank Him 
for all things, and now there is light from above even 
on the darkest paths. 

How much good it did me, Grethe, that he said 
that! And because he was so open-hearted, it was 
just as though the string of my tongue was loosed, 
and I said: 

Yes, right there we have the remedy, Landlord. 
Thanking God for the sorrow brings healing from 
the sorrow, it liberates us from sinful sorrow, is a 
defense against unbelief, despair, and other sins. 

But then we must not ask our own heart if it 
feels thankful, or our own reason if it can under- 
stand what good there can come from that which 
gives us so much pain. To thank God in holy defi- 
ance of both feelings and reason in the faith that He 
is love and that all things work together unto good 
for us if we fear and love Him, is the great art, the 
art that is never entirely mastered. 

May God teach us that ever better and better! 
added Landlord. 

But listen now, Hans, he said again, after a little 
while. That Olaf-boy of yours, who drives for me 



Ill 

now, will have to look around for something else, 
too, I think. 

O dear me, Landlord, won't you keep him on the 
farm any longer? Mother and I thought it would 
be well if he could stay on the farm a couple of years 
more for his board and clothes as before, I said, and 
make himself as useful as he could. 

And later on, at the end of those two years, then 
what? he asked. 

Well, we poor folk don't generally think so far 
ahead. But if he could after that get a position with 
some good people, like the one Peter now has, we 
should be very happy and thankful, said I. 

Like Peter, yes, said he. There certainly is the 
making of an able and good man in one as well as 
the other. And as far as that goes, I should have 
no objections to seeing Olaf, too, as an agriculturist. 
We shall not very soon have too many efficient 
farmers. I wish we had many more than we have, 
so that our entire country might produce two stalks 
where there now grows one. That doesn't sound 
like a great deal, but it would be just twice what it 
is, Hans, twice as big a crop all over our country. 
That would amount to something, wouldn't it? And 
all patriotic men must have this as their aim, "two 
stalks for one/' if the "economical restoration of the 
country" is to be more than talk. 

But from this it does not follow that every man 



112 

must be a farmer, We need other good men, too. 
As far as Olaf is concerned, I believe that I have 
discovered that he is cut out for an engineer. Per- 
haps in time he might become one of those who can 
make all the fertilizer they want from air and 
nothing. 

In that case, he, too, might benefit farming, I 
should say, just as much as any agriculturist. For 
now fertilizer is the gold in farming, sort of the 
capital, without which all the agriculturists in the 
world, and the rest of us, too, can't get any farther 
than to — marking time. 

As I said before, it seems to me that Olaf is just 
cut out for some kind of engineer, and that thought 
won't give me any rest until I shall have tried what 
he amounts to, provided he and his father and 
mother agree to it, of course. Let me see, he is just 
16 years old now. A two-year high school course, 
then four years at the technical school, and we have 
the finished engineer — 22 years old. What do you 
say to that, Hans? 

Excuse me, Landlord, for the time being I can 
say nothing, I replied. And that was true, Grethe, 
I couldn't. I felt the lump in my throat again. 

It isn't necessary either, just at this moment, he 
said, for I understand, anyway, what you would say. 
You would say that going to school costs money. 
Wasn't that what you were thinking of, Hans? 



113 

Well, yes, that, too, and many other things, Land- 
lord, I said. 

I have thought of the same things, Hans. That 
is, in the long sleepless nights, I, too, had plenty of 
time to think of other things than money. You un- 
derstand that I mean especially that long winter 
when God had taken my boys to Himself. Among 
various other thoughts, there was especially one that 
ever returned: You must look about for some one 
to help, gladden, and benefit. Your own candidates 
for an agriculturist and an engineer, who are with 
God, don't need money for school or any other help. 
But there may be others who need it and whom God 
wants you to help. 

And I may as well tell you at once: The reason 
my thoughts were fixed on Peter and Olaf was not 
only that they are gifted. But I have understood 
that they fear and love God, and that they honor 
their father and mother, so that they wouldn't for 
any price do anything that would offend or grieve 
you. Am I not right, perhaps? 

So far they have, thank God, not grieved us, I 
replied. 

That's good, said he. But the love of home, of 
father and mother, the desire to please them, and the 
fear of causing them grief, are a girdle of strength 
to the young people in the hour of danger and 
temptation. Therefore one can help such people 

8 — Youth and Christianity 



114 

without risking that the help will be abused. The 
more I have studied the conduct and fate of people 
in this world, the greater has the old saying become 
to me, that it shall be zuell with those who honor 
father and mother. 

Now you know my opinion, Hans, he said, as we 
parted. Go home now, and talk the matter over with 
your wife, and let me know in a few days what you 
decide. But I want to say, that it would please me 
very much, if my plan could win your consent and 
that of your boys. — Well, so long, Hans ! he said, 
and give my regards to your wife! 

Hans and Grethe sat a while in silence. Then 
she said: Now we must pray together over this, and 
then we shall have to try to sleep on it till to-morrow. 

Or perhaps wake over it, added Hans. 

Then together they read one of the psalms of 
David, thanked God for all His blessings, and prayed 
together for themselves and their children, for the 
landlord, and for — all men. 

Thereupon they sought their humble couch and 
went to rest. Perhaps it took an hour or two longer 
than usual before sleep came; I do not know. But 
this I do know, that it was two happy people who 
here closed their eyes, after having in silent sighs 
once more committed themselves and theirs to the 
gracious care of the Lord, He that keepeth Israel 
and slumbereth not. 



115 

happy people, in spite of their meager circum- 
stances and their fatiguing toil from early Monday 
morning till late Saturday night, just as hard year 
after year, ever since they over 20 years ago started 
to clear and build under the hillside in this desolate 
and neglected place. 

Does any one think that these people would have 
been just as happy without the Christian faith and 
the fear of God? - 

1 do not think so. 



The landlord, of whom we have been speaking, 
was Halvar, the owner of the largest farm in the 
parish, Storberg. But among the tenants and the 
other people of the neighborhood he was colloquially 
called Landlord, and always when they meant Stor- 
berg they said only the farm. 

b. Seven years later. Peter has come home from 
the agricultural school, after a two-years' course. 
Landlord has made him the manager of his farm, 
and in the five years that have passed he has given 
him more and more liberty in the conduct of affairs. 
And Landlord is satisfied. For now there really does 
grow two stalks where seven years ago there grew 
only one; in other words, the farm produces twice 
the crop that it used to. The same is the case with 
Hans and Grethe's little place. That has also been 
benefited by the knowledge of the agriculturist and 



116 

partly, too, by his savings, when it was found de- 
sirable to do a little more ditching than father was 
able to do, or to experiment with calcium-sulphate on 
a piece of land which otherwise would have had to 
wait too long for fertilizing. And since his mother 
became a widow about a year ago, such help is 
doubly welcome. 

There are those who whisper that Landlord with 
satisfaction believes himself to have discovered that 
his daughter Margit and the agriculturist look very 
favorably upon one another. But about that we will, 
of course, not say anything, as long as the engage- 
ment is not announced. 

Olaf got his two-year high school course and four- 
year course at the technical school, was graduated with 
honors, and has since then spent a year as a stipen- 
diary, first in Germany, and then at the large factories 
at Notodden, where he has accepted a permanent 
salaried position, to begin in the fall. 

During his school years, he always used to spend 
his vacations at home on the little place under the 
hillside, and helped with the haying and the rest of 
the summer's work. And it is the same this year, 
with this difference only, that this summer he is do- 
ing all the haying and harvesting alone with the help 
of his mother and a half-grown sister. 

Among the things that he has done besides the 
regular work of haying and harvesting, there is one 



117 

that I must mention, because I think it was so de- 
lightful. 

"What is the engineer up to now?" Landlord 
asked one day, as he turned in at the place to see 
Olaf, and found him out by the well. 

"I want to try to repair this thing," Olaf replied, 
"to see if it can't be forced to give as good water 
now as it did when we were children. During the 
last year the water has become so bad that the cattle 
will hardly drink it — much less can it be used for 
the household. But to carry water from the brook 
I think is entirely too hard work for mother, espe- 
cially in the winter." 

"What seems to be the matter with the well, 
then?" Landlord asks. 

"As far as I can understand, only this," says Olaf, 
"that the timbers are old and partly rotten, so that 
every now and then little pieces of wood and dirt 
from the sides of the well drop into the water." 

"Well, you are an engineer and, I suppose, un- 
derstand it," said Landlord. 

"Of course, well digging was not one of the sub- 
jects I studied, but T should like to make an attempt, 
anyway," said Olaf. 

"Success to you!" said Landlord. "But remem- 
ber that the well is at least 16 feet deep, and it has 
happened that such a hole has caved in and buried 
its man." 



118 

And, of course, some of the neighbors who passed 
by and saw what he was doing, had to tell him that 
he had undertaken more than he could accomplish. 
"He will never come out of it alive — as young and 
inexperienced as he is," they said. 

He let them talk, saying occasionally: "Perhaps 
so," — or : "Do you think so ?" — and went right on 
with his work. 

And with the skill of an expert and the persistence 
of a tenant he worked early and late, took out the 
old rotten timbers, and put in new ones from bottom 
to top, and then dipped the well dry, and cleaned the 
bottom. And now the well gives as good water again 
as it did "when they were children." And mother 
does not have to carry water from the brook. 



The harvest-home is on at the farm. That is a 
beautiful old custom that Landlord inherited from his 
father and which he has kept up all the years he 
has had the farm. 

All the tenants and their families, and others who 
have taken part in the summer and fall work, are 
invited to a banquet. The meal is served in the main 
parlor. 

This is Landlord's thanks to the laborers for their 
help in housing the crop. But in the last ten years 
it has become something more. Since God succeeded 



119 

in drawing the hearts of Landlord and his wife to 
Himself — by taking their "agriculturist" and "en- 
gineer" from them — the harvest-home has become 
especially a thanksgiving to the Giver of all good 
gifts for all His blessings. 

This year Olaf is again at the harvest-home. It is 
a long time since he was at home at this time of year. 
But he remembers well how he, as a little boy, every 
fall used to rejoice a long time beforehand at the 
prospect of going with father and mother to the 
harvest-home. It was almost like waiting and look- 
ing forward to Christmas, Landlord's big parlor with 
lamps and strong light, with the large, old clock that 
played like a "music-box" every time it was about to 
strike, the large, beautiful pictures on the walls, he 
himself in his Sunday-best clothes, of which some 
article often was brand new, just as for Christmas, 
vvhite linen on the long tables, and then all the good 
rhings to eat, of which he was allowed to eat as much 
as he was able to, and after that a bag of all kinds of 
good things to take home with him — that surely was 
something to look forward to ! 

And Olaf was surely not the only one who had 
fond memories from these harvest-homes. There 
were others, big and little, even old greyhaired peo- 
ple, who every year again looked forward with 
pleasure to the approaching festival. And I believe 
that the harvest-homes at Storberg have contributed 



120 

a great deal towards preserving and strengthening 
the friendly terms which here obtain between the 
landlord's family and the laborers. 

As the clock strikes six, "the festival is rung in." 
It is the large, old dinner-bell of the farm that sounds 
— that well-known ring, and still, how entirely dif- 
ferent now from the ordinary! This is the signal 
for all to repair to the festal room. 

Slowly and gravely, as when they enter the church 
door, they pass through the broad hall and into the 
parlor, at least a half hundred people, counting old 
and young. That the big parlor is decorated with 
garlands and flags, they are accustomed to at the 
harvest-homes. But to-day everything seems, more 
beautiful than ever before. 

But what is this? In a prominent place on the 
wall two initials are seen, surrounded by small flags. 
Perhaps they are to signify Haakon and Maud, as 
at the royal banquet in the Turnerhall, of which some 
of the younger members of the company had caught 
a glimpse when they were in the city on that remark- 
able and wonderfully beautiful summer day? Yes, it 
is an M. But the first one, can that be an H.? 

O, now I have it! whispers Mette to Lotte, it is 
P. M. — yes, guess now ! O, says Lotte, it means 
Peter and Margit; their engagement is, of course, to 
be announced to-day. O, — great goodness, how in- 
teresting ! 



121 

When all have found seats in the roomy parlor, 
they first join in the hymn, 

Now thank we all our God 
With heart and hands and voices ! 

Thereupon Landlord opens the large family Bible 
and reads Psalm 103, to which he adds a prayer, 
thanking God for the produce of the year and for 
all other temporal blessings, and then a special 
thanksgiving for the comfort of the forgiveness of 
sins, for the peace of faith, and the hope of eternal 
life — praying for mercy and grace, blessings and 
peace upon all, big and little, old and young, "and, 
above all," thus he closes his prayer, "grant, O Lord, 
that whatever Thou in Thy wisdom and love mayest 
apportion to us of prosperity and adversity, joys and 
sorrows, may draw our hearts ever nearer to Thee, 
in obedience, in knowledge, love, and faith, until we 
inherit eternal Sabbath rest. Amen." 

Then the victuals are brought in, and the whole 
company is seated at table as one large family. 

Landlord asks the blessing of God upon their 
food, wishes all welcome to the table, and asks all to 
help themselves. 

Pretty soon Landlord raps for attention and says : 
Thank you, all, men and women, young and old, for 
faithful summer and fall work. Next to the blessing 
of God, it is your faithfulness, care, and industry 



122 

we have to thank that everything has gone so well 
and that we now have the year's crop safely housed ! 

One of those who last year was with us here is 
no longer, among us. God rest his soul in heaven! 
I am sure we all feel it as a loss that Hans Heien is 
no longer in our midst. 

I can never forget what he was to me in that 
most critical time, that long and sad winter ten years 
ago. With his proved faith and his rich Christian 
experience he was a great help to me, when I was as 
weak as a child. And let me say at the same time: 
in his work he was among the first, a living example 
of the truth of the old saying: The best Christian is 
the best soldier. Blessed be his memory! 

Blessed is he who leaves such a memory, said 
Baard Haugen. 

Yes, and who has so honestly deserved it, added 
his neighbor, Anders Dalen. 

The majority was moved. Many had hard work 
to conceal the tear that would steal forth. 

For, indeed, there were some who at times had 
felt a little oppressed by Hans Heien's conscientious- 
ness in small things and great, his straight-forward 
nature, and consistent honesty in all his work and all 
his conduct. But they could not do otherwise than 
respect his unfeigned faith. If there are any sincere 
Christians in the world, Hans is one of them, was a 
saying that was often heard among his fellow la- 



123 

borers, even from those who were not exactly of 
mother's best children. 

Landlord's next speech was as follows : 

I just want to hear if there is a single one in this 
company who will join in a good wish for a young 
person at this table who is generally called the agri- 
culturist? By no means, whispered some wag, just 
loud enough for most of those at the table to hear. 
Now, it was just a public secret that the agriculturist 
was so popular that any one of the laborers would 
have been willing to go through fire and water for 
him, if necessary. So you don't want to? continued 
Landlord. No, I might have known that. He* has 
sort of tried to be the manager of the farm, and that 
is ever a thankless task. And I suppose he has been 
trying to play the overseer of slaves from the days 
of Uncle Tom, and then, of course, he has gotten you 
all against him. I suppose he ought to be thankful 
that he has so far escaped being lynched. 

So you don't want to join in any good wish for 
him . . . ? Yes, yes, we do, was now heard from 
many at once. 

O, is that so ? I thought you whispered no a little 
while ago ; but it is true, I am a little hard of hearing 
of late. 

Well, my dear agriculturist, now there grow two 
stalks where there used to be but one, and that was 
the object we had in view seven years ago. And for 



124 

the part you have played in realizing this object, and 
for faithful service in the many toilsome years — 
take your Rachel, if she will have you. When we 
give you Margit, our only child, we give you the best 
we have, and more no one can give. And still, for 
the young people there is one thing that must ever be 
valued more than to get the coveted one, and that is 
to get father's and mother's blessing in the bargain. 
And that you shall have. 

Peter, you have honored your father and mother, 
and therefore it shall be well with you also when you 
put your feet under your own mahogany. For God's 
promise can not fail. 

Margit, you have been the sunbeam in father's 
and mother's home, and therefore your own shall be 
bright and good and happy. 

God bless you both and give you as much joy as 
you can bear and as much sorrow as you need on 
your future way, that is father's and mother's wish 
for you on the day of your betrothal. 

Do we then all join in this wish: God bless the 
newly betrothed! A hearty and well-meant "aye" 
rings forth from the whole company. "Amen," says 
Baard Haugen. That was needed here, a plain "aye" 
was not enough, he thought. 

After a short pause, Landlord again spoke: 

My last speech here at the table, he said, is for 
the young engineer, whom we have the pleasure of 



125 

seeing among us at this festival, and that in perfect 
condition, as far as I can understand. The well did 
not cave in on him, and he escaped with his life in 
spite of all terrifying warnings. 

The last seven years he has been in exile, nearly 
always away from home and from us. Many of you 
hardly remember the lad, who was ever busy, who 
built a dam and saw-mill in the brook when the men 
rested after dinner. And you who remember him 
perhaps ask: Wonder what he has been doing all 
these years, and wonder what he amounts to? Well, 
that time will tell. I suppose I ought to know a little 
about it, too, for I have simply tried to follow him 
from year to year, and I might mention to you a 
great many queer subjects that he has studied, and 
he has received excellent standings. And even if I 
should say that he had learned to make gold out of 
air and nothing, I might be telling the truth, but you 
wouldn't believe me. Therefore I will not say that. 

But one thing I want to confide to you: Olaf has 
learned the fourth commandment in all these years. 
And if any one thinks that that is a small matter, I 
want to say to you that it is the greatest and best of 
all that a young person can learn away from home. 
And would to God that every woman and man, old 
and young, throughout the whole land would fear 
and love God and honor father and mother! Then 
there would be progress and national happiness in 



126 

this land. For the better Christian, the better soldier, 
applies in all circumstances of life. 

And I feel constrained to say this to all of you 
as the best part of my experience in life: The better 
Christian, the better son and daughter, the better 
spouse, father and mother, the better tenant, laborer, 
landlord, artisan, agriculturist, engineer, etc. 

My dear friends, let this truth be vividly im- 
printed upon our minds and shine forth in all our 
life, so that it may continue unto them that shall walk 
over our graves : The better Christian, the better 
soldier ! 

My dear Olaf, accept our most hearty congratu- 
lations ! It has pleased me greatly to notice your 
fine standings and all your testimonials of diligence 
and progress in your studies from year to year, and 
it is a pleasure to all of us to wish you success with 
the results of your schooling and studies. But still 
more has it pleased me that during it all you have, 
as I would express it, learned the fourth command- 
ment so w r ell. 

Go with God, then, to your life-work, and may 
the promise of the fourth commandment go with you, 
it shall be well with you! And be yourself a living 
proof of the truth that the better Christian, the better 
engineer! < 

Whatever else was spoken at the table — or after- 
wards — must be omitted here. 



127 

But if we could have accompanied the guests on 
the way home, we should have heard repeated again 
and again, in the larger and smaller groups, such 
exclamations as : Such a landlord and family you 
will have to hunt for a long time — God bless our 
landlord and his family and grant them a long life ! 
— thanks and praise to God for such a blessed fes- 
tival ! etc. 

And Baard Haugen's last words, before parting 
from the others, were: 

I have, as you all know, been a hard case all my 
life — -God forgive me my sin! — but of one thing I 
have become more and more convinced, and that is : 
If there are sincere Christians on earth, then Hans 
Heien was one of them, and then Landlord is one 
of them — and one thing more: The better Chris- 
tian, the better tenant; and likewise: The better 
Christian, the better landlord. 

And then I want to add, continued Anders Dalen : 
God grant that all of us who have been assembled 
to-night would try harder than before to be like Hans 
Heien and our landlord in their faith and godliness, 
that it may also be true of us, each in his position, 
that the better Christian the better man ! 



VII. 
Faith and Reason, 



1* Is Christianity Contrary to Reason? 

An innocent child feels sure that what father has 
said is true, because father has said it. 

Thus it is also with our first, childlike faith in 
God and His Word. We feel sure that what God 
tells us in His Word (the Bible) is true, because God 
has said it. 

But it does not take long before the thoughtful 
child finds that reason encounters many difficulties in 
Christianity. Even at a pretty early age one may 
have considerable trouble with the miracles of the 
Bible. "How could the water become wine? How 
could the many thousand people satisfy their hunger 
with five loaves and two fishes ?" Not to mention 
Balaam's ass, and the like. 

Perhaps many of us remember a time when such 
questions caused us to have misgivings, if they do not 
do so even now. And that which helped us through 
was: "So the Bible says," and "with God nothing is 
impossible." 



129 

But the miracle of all miracles is: The Word be- 
became flesh, God was in Christ. 

And these questions, doubts, and misgivings, 
which like a worm threaten to cut off the life-giving 
root of Christianity for so many, especially in youth, 
as a matter of course gather about the person of 
Him who is the center and essence of all Christianity, 
our Lord Jesus Christ. 

The Son of God; conceived by the power of the 
Holy Ghost; true man and at the same time true 
God; and the God-man suffering, dying; one for all, 
etc. There are probably those among us who at the 
thought of these things sometimes have felt some- 
thing that reminds us of "fiery darts." 

We still try to find rest from the anxious thoughts 
by resorting to that which in childhood brought con- 
fidence: The Bible says so; with God nothing is im- 
possible; and we do well in clinging to that. 

But the time does come to many of us, at least, 
when we, for all of that, do not feel as confident as 
before. Especially may it happen that this, "the Bible 
says so," does not help us to feel as confident as we 
did in our childhood when we hear about the so- 
called Bible criticism, hear that there are scholars 
who claim to have discovered that the Bible is no 
more reliable than are, for instance, the sagas of the 
Norwegian kings, in which Snorre evidently has in- 
cluded as trustworthy history many marvelous leg- 
s—Youth and Christianity 



130 

ends which, during the oral tradition from generation 
to generation, had formed around the real events. 

Some of the Bible critics now claim to have dis- 
covered that the same is the case with several of the 
Bible stories that we think are accounts of people 
who really have lived and events that really have 
taken place. 

I mention this, because I suppose that many of 
you have heard of it before, or that you will at all 
events hear or read thereof. 

And then I want to say : Let us not lose our bal- 
ance if we hear that some scholars claim to have 
found mistakes here and there in the Bible. Some of 
these men are very ready to say that it is the "latest 
results of scholarship," when they themselves have a 
new idea, a surmise, for which they think they have 
found some support in their researches. But it has 
been seen more than once that in a few years it 
has become necessary to abandon such "results" as 
untenable. And that will, no doubt, be the case 
hereafter. 

And then we must remember, what applies to 
every one of us, that we "know in part." Therefore 
it is not strange that our understanding of the Bible 
in many resepcts may be defective. That the Bible is 
given us by God to reveal His will urito our salva- 
tion, and that any one who will do the will of God 
shall know, as Jesus said, whether the doctrine be of 



131 

God — and that the doctrine is of God, is an estab- 
lished fact and shall so remain for all time. 

Is Christianity, as some say, contrary to reason? 
Indeed, not. When at times it looks that way to us, 
it is only due to our shortsightedness. 

The little child that has barely learned its multipli- 
cation table does not understand father's, the scholar's 
way of figuring when he, for instance, computes. the 
size of the sun, its distance from the earth, etc. But 
there is not therefore any conflict between his and 
the child's way of handling the figures. If the child 
says : " You are figuring wrong, father, for you are 
figuring otherwise than I do," he only answers : "You 
are too small yet to understand my figures." 

So here, too : "For as the heavens are higher 
than the earth, so are My thoughts higher than your 
thoughts, saith the Lord" (Is. 55, 8. 9). 

A heaven that was no higher than the earth would 
be no heaven. And a God whose thoughts were not 
higher than human thoughts would be no God. 

God's plan for our salvation, God in Christ, is far 
above the reach of human thought and reason ; faith 
alone can grasp it. 

He who in religious matters will believe only that 
which he thinks he can grasp with his reason is called 
a rationalist; his religion, rationalism. But it is not 
the fault of reason when things go wrong. It is the 
fault of the corrupt will — ■ as in other matters, so 



132 

here. Humanity's intellectual giants, the most gifted 
and enlightened, have also in great part been believ- 
ing Christians. 

Therefore no one ought to speak evil of reason or 
wish it out of the way. We could no more do with- 
out it than memory, for instance. And no one must 
say that his reason compels him to reject Christianity. 
Ye would not, were the words of our Savior to Jeru- 
salem, which rejected Him. And therein is expressed 
the innermost, the true reason for rejecting Him, 
wherever and whenever it is done. They would not. 

The faith of the child is, as before stated, to be- 
gin with, an entirely unquestioning faith. Father has 
said so — God has said so, that is enough ; one feels 
confident. Some do even as adults keep this confi- 
dence and certainty apparently unmoved. Others must 
experience misgivings and struggles, though that, too, 
in varying degree, so that no one must say to his 
brother: If you have not had the very same mis- 
givings and struggles that I have, there must be 
something wrong with your faith; or: there must be 
something wrong with me, because I have not had 
the same experiences as this or that other person. 

However that may be, misgivings and doubts may 
come upon any one of us sooner or later. Let us not 
hope to escape. But the more completely we have 
surrendered ourselves to the Lord Jesus to live en- 
tirely with Him and for Him, the better we are 



133 

equipped for the struggles that may await us, that 
kind of struggle, also, which we now have in mind. 

"Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for 
we have heard Him ourselves and know that this is 
indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world," said the 
believing men of Sychar to the woman of Samaria 
(John 4, 42). They plead what they have seen and 
experienced. 

And if we have lived for some time as faithful 
disciples of Jesus of Nazareth, listened to His speech, 
and sincerely tried to do what He bids us, then can 
we also speak from experience, and our testimony 
will be essentially as follows: 

Jesus, and He only, can heal the wounded con- 
science and give comfort and peace. He gives power 
to triumph in the hour of temptation, and power to 
bear the sad destinies of life, power to bear humilia- 
tions, persecutions, if so be, without becoming em- 
bittered and without despairing. He helps me to 
await the future hopefully in spite of dark clouds on 
the horizon, in hope for me and all mine, and in hope 
for the progress and triumph of the cause of the 
Kingdom of God on the whole earth. He gives me 
the inexpressible joy of being allowed to be His with 
my whole life, so that whatever tasks I may have in 
life derive their highest value and greatest beauty 
from the fact that I now can see them as tasks given 
me by Him, the most exalted and the best of all lords 



134 

and kings. Then is youth with its ideals ennobled. 
And then there falls a tinge of sublimity and beauty 
upon my entire life even though I may have the 
humblest position in the world, for I have a service 
within the threshold of the temple of God on earth. 
He takes away from me the terror of death, and He 
supplies my soul with the glorious and blessed hope 
of eternal life. 

Furthermore: He gives me a disposition which 
was not mine before, so that now I find it more 
blessed in love to do good than in self-love to enjoy 
that which is good, more blessed in love to give and 
sacrifice than in self-love to receive, more blessed in 
love to help and serve than in self-love to be helped 
and served. Then the love of Jesus Christ is gaining 
control of my inward and outward life, His image is 
taking form in me — in me, who by nature was 
bound in self-love, saturated in self-love. 

When we have such experiences — and any one 
who will do what He bids us can have them — we 
must say: 

I believe now, not only because it says so and so 
in the Bible, but I have myself experienced that 
Jesus, as He appears in the Gospel, satisfies the deep- 
est yearning of my soul; He is the very Savior that 
I need; He is indeed the Savior of the world, the 
Christ. 

And then we can cheerfully meet all rationalistic 



135 

arguments that attack our faith, as that believing 
young carpenter answered the rationalistic student 
who had tried so hard to persuade him of the ab- 
surdity of Christianity: "You must go about it alto- 
gether differently, if you would succeed in taking the 
faith away from one who really has it. You would 
have to prove to him that he does not experience the 
truth of the Word of God in his life; you would have to 
prove to him that it is not true that he draws nearer 
to God the more sincerely he takes the Word of 
God to heart; and that it is not true, either, that he 
experiences more distress and misery the more dis- 
obedient he is. But that proof you will never be able 
to produce, because every believing Christian knows 
from daily experience that all his comfort and peace 
and strength and power comes from obeying the 
Word, and that his greatest grief and distress is due 
to the fact that he is as yet unable perfectly to obey 
the Word." 

Do you as he did! Be not too ready to engage 
with those who "dote about questions and strifes of 
words" (1 Tim. 6, 4). The Bible and Christianity 
are above disputing about in that manner. And it is 
not by that sort of strife of words that souls are 
converted and saved. But abide ever more honestly 
with the Lord Jesus, grow ever more true to Him, 
receive an ever greater abundance of His spirit and 
grace, light, and strength ! And you will, as all 



136 

honest disciples of the Lord from the time of the 
apostles unto this day, have just such experiences as 
those mentioned. And you will thereby receive all 
needed power to triumph over every objection that 
may arise against your Christian belief, from within 
or from without. 

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory 
through our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. 

2* "Christianity and Humanity's Great Men/' 

Those who want to see the assertion that Chris- 
tianity is incompatible with great intelligence, learn- 
ing, ability, and culture, thoroughly demolished, I 
would advise to read L. Dahle's book, " Christianity 
and Humanity's Great Men." 

If I could repeat to you the contents of the whole 
book, I would do so. But I must confine myself to 
directing your attention to it, to "review" it, as we 
generally say. 

The author shows 

that "the great majority of the greatest and best 
poets, artists, scientists, statesmen, have been religious 
men, . . ." 

that "the greatest have at all times submitted to 
God and given Him the glory, ..." 

that "the very greatest, the pioneers in the dif- 
ferent domains, have to a great extent either openly 



137 

confessed their Christian faith or, at least, expressed 
a deep respect for Christianity/' 

Let me mention some of these "great men." 

1. Artists: Michael Angelo, Raphael, Leonardo 
(painters — the first also great as a sculptor, architect, 
engineer, poet), Dante, Shakespeare, Milton (poets, 
— the first also great as a jurist, linguist, warrior, 
statesman), Bach, Handel, Mendelssohn, Hayden 
(musicians). 

2. Scientists: Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, 
Isaac Newton, Linne, Orsted, Simpson, Pasteur. 

3. Statesmen: Axel Oxenstjerna, George Wash- 
ington, Gustavus Adolphus, Abraham Lincoln, Wil- 
liam Wilberforce, Gladstone. 

You will remember that all these are men who are 
looked up to by the whole civilized world as among 
the greatest, each in his domain. 

And when I tell you that Dahle's book besides 
these presents to us a great many other acknowledged 
masters and most prominent representatives of the 
various sciences: Philosophers, linguists, historians, 
geographers, mathematicians, lawyers, naturalists, 
physicians, etc. — from past and present times, many 
from the 19th century — and that it is true of all of 
them, that they "have either openly confessed their 
Christian faith or, at least, expressed a deep respect 
for Christianity," then you will understand that we 
here have a very remarkable collection of pictures, a 



138 

"portrait gallery" which it will please every Chris- 
tian to see. 

Personally I have found great edification in study- 
ing these portraits and in listening to the quiet, strong 
testimony that proceeds from them. 

And to you, young people, I would say : Procure 
the book and read it! 

If any one then tries to make you believe that it is 
only ignorant and limited people who cling to Chris- 
tianity, you will know that it is not true. 

And if any one would persuade you that Chris- 
tianity is a hindrance to enlightenment and progress, 
that you must "liberate" yourself from it in order to 
achieve anything really great and good, you know 
that the very artists, scientists, etc., who achieved 
most, have been believing Christians. 

Then you will not be so easily tempted to be 
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord (2 Tim. 1, 8). 

Dear young people, never be ashamed of your 
Christian faith or your Bible ! 

Verily, you are in good company when you place 
yourselves under the banner of Christianity. For 
there they have stood, the greatest and the best, of 
all centuries ! 




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